ALVMNVS  BOOK  FVND 


THE 

GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 
B  IRovel 


BY 

FRANK    R.  STOCKTON 


ILLUSTRATED 
BY   PETER    NEWELL 


NEW    YORK   AND    LONDON 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1897,  1899,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 

All  rights  reserved. 


P3Z421 

&n 

m°\ 

MAlKl 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGB 

I.  THE  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  EUTERPE- THALIA  ...  i 

II.  THE  SARDIS  WORKS 10 

III.  MARGARET  RALEIGH 17 

IV.  THE  MISSION  OF  SAMUEL  BLOCK 24 

V.  UNDER  WATER 36 

VI.    VOICES  FROM  THE  POLAR   SEAS 44 

VII.  GOOD  NEWS  GOES  FROM  SARDIS 53 

VIII.  THE  DEVIL  ON  THE  DIPSEY 61 

IX.  THE  ARTESIAN  RAY 67 

X.  "LAKE  SHIVER" 77 

XI.  THEY  BELIEVE  IT  is  THE  POLAR  SEA  ....  88 

XII.  CAPTAIN  HUBBELL  TAKES  COMMAND   ....  95 

XIII.  LONGITUDE  EVERYTHING 103 

XIV.  A  REGION  OF  NOTHINGNESS 113 

XV.  THE  AUTOMATIC  SHELL 123 

XVI.  THE  TRACK  OF  THE  SHELL 131 

XVII.  CAPTAIN  HUBBELL  DECLINES  TO  GO  WHALING.  142 

XVIII.  MR.  MARCY'S  CANAL 151 

XIX.  THE  ICY  GATEWAY 160 

XX.    "THAT  IS  HOW   I   LOVE  YOU  " 171 

XXI.  THE  CAVE  OF  LIGHT 177 

XXII.  CLEWE'S  THEORY 186 

XXIII.  THE  LAST  DIVE  OF  THE  DIPBBY 193 

XXIV.  ROVINSKI  COMES  TO  THE  SURFACE 200 

XXV.  LAURELS  .  .  212 


393825 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


"HE    RETREATED    TO    THE    SHELL"      ....  Frontispiece 
ROVINSKI    MAKING    OBSERVATIONS       ....  Facing  p.      12 

A  GREAT  PATH  OF  LIGHT  FROM  THE  SEARCH 
LIGHT  IN  THE  BOW 38 

"THE  END  OF  THE  STICK  SEEMED  TO  MELT"  70 

THE  AUTOMATIC  SHELL 126 

A  PERILOUS  FEAT 158 

A  LUMP  OF  ICE  SWEEPS  THE  LENGTH  OF  THE 

DECK 196 

THE    GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS  "          222 


THE  GREAT  STONE  OF  SARDIS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   ARRIVAL   OP   THE   EUTERPE-THALIA 

IT  was  about  noon  of  a  day  in  early  summer 
that  a  westward-bound  Atlantic  liner  was  rapidly 
nearing  the  port  of  New  York.  Not  long  before, 
the  old  light-house  on  Montauk  Point  had  been 
sighted,  and  the  company  on  board  the  vessel 
were  animated  by  the  knowledge  that  in  a  few 
hours  they  would  be  at  the  end  of  their  voyage. 

The  vessel  now  speeding  along  the  southern 
coast  of  Long  Island  was  the  Euterpe  -  Thalia, 
from  Southampton.  On  Wednesday  morning  she 
had  left  her  English  port,  and  many  of  her  pas 
sengers  were  naturally  anxious  to  be  on  shore  in 
time  to  transact  their  business  on  the  last  day  of 
the  week.  There  were  even  some  who  expected 
to  make  their  return  voyage  on  the  Melpomene- 
Thalia,  which  would  leave  New  York  on  the  next 
Monday. 

The  Euterpe-Thalia  was  one  of  those  combina 
tion  ocean  vessels  which  had  now  been  in  use  for 


.GEAT:  STONE:  OP  SARDIS 


nearly  ten  years,  and  although  the  present  voy 
age  was  not  a  particularly  rapid  one,  it  had  been 
made  in  a  little  less  than  three  days. 

As  may  be  easily  imagined,  a  vessel  like  this 
was  a  very  different  craft  from  the  old  steamers 
which  used  to  cross  the  Atlantic  —  "ocean  grey 
hounds"  they  were  called—  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century. 

It  would  be  out  of  place  here  to  give  a  full  de 
scription  of  the  vessels  which  at  the  period  of  our 
story,  in  1947,  crossed  the  Atlantic  at  an  average 
time  of  three  days,  but  an  idea  of  their  construc 
tion  will  suffice.  Most  of  these  vessels  belonged 
to  the  class  of  the  Euterpe-Thalia,  and  were,  in 
fact,  compound  marine  structures,  the  two  por 
tions  being  entirely  distinct  from  each  other. 
The  great  hull  of  each  of  these  vessels  contained 
nothing  but  its  electric  engines  and  its  propelling 
machinery,  with  the  necessary  fuel  and  adjuncts. 

The  upper  portion  of  the  compound  vessel 
consisted  of  decks  and  quarters  for  passengers 
and  crew  and  holds  for  freight.  These  were  all 
comprised  within  a  vast  upper  hull,  which  rested 
upon  the  lower  hull  containing  the  motive  power, 
the  only  point  of  contact  being  an  enormous 
ball-and-socket  joint.  Thus,  no  matter  how 
much  the  lower  hull  might  roll  and  pitch  and 
toss,  the  upper  hull  remained  level  and  compara 
tively  undisturbed. 

Not  only  were  comfort  to  passengers  and  se 
curity  to  movable  freight  gained  by  this  arrange 
ment  of  the  compound  vessel,  but  it  was  now  pos 
sible  to  build  the  lower  hull  of  much  less  size 
than  had  been  the  custom  in  the  former  days  of 


THE    ARRIVAL   OF    THE    EUTERPE-THALIA  3 

steamships,  when  the  hull  had  to  be  large  enough 
to  contain  everything.  As  the  more  modern  hull 
held  nothing  but  the  machinery,  it  was  small  in 
comparison  with  the  superincumbent  upper  hull, 
and  thus  the  force  of  the  engine,  once  needed  to 
propel  a  vast  mass  through  the  resisting  medium 
of  the  ocean,  was  now  employed  upon  a  compara 
tively  small  hull,  the  great  body  of  the  vessel 
meeting  with  no  resistance  except  that  of  the  air. 

It  was  not  necessary  that  the  two  parts  of 
these  compound  vessels  should  always  be  the 
same.  The  upper  hulls  belonging  to  one  of  the 
transatlantic  lines  were  generally  so  constructed 
that  they  could  be  adjusted  to  any  one  of  their 
lower  or  motive -power  hulls.  Each  hull  had  a 
name  of  its  own,  and  so  the  combination  name  of 
the  entire  vessel  was  frequently  changed. 

It  was  not  three  o'clock  when  the  Euterpe-TJm- 
Ha  passed  through  the  Narrows  and  moved  slow 
ly  towards  her  pier  on  the  Long  Island  side  of 
the  city.  The  quarantine  officers,  who  had  ac 
companied  the  vessel  on  her  voyage,  had  dropped 
their  report  in  the  official  tug  which  had  met  the 
vessel  on  her  entrance  into  the  harbor,  and  as  the 
old  custom-house  annoyances  had  long  since  been 
abolished,  most  of  the  passengers  were  prepared 
for  a  speedy  landing. 

One  of  these  passengers — a  man  about  thirty- 
five — stood  looking  out  over  the  stern  of  the  ves 
sel  instead  of  gazing,  as  were  most  of  his  compan 
ions,  towards  tfye  city  which  they  were  approach 
ing.  He  looked  out  over  the  harbor,  under  the 
great  bridge  gently  spanning  the  distance  be 
tween  the  western  end  of  Long  Island  and  the 


4  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

New  Jersey  shore — its  central  pier  resting  where 
once  lay  the  old  Battery — and  so  he  gazed  over 
the  river,  and  over  the  houses  stretching  far  to 
the  west,  as  if  his  eyes  could  catch  some  signs  of 
the  country  far  beyond.  This  was  Roland  Clewe, 
the  hero  of  our  story,  who  had  been  studying  and 
experimenting  for  the  past  year  in  the  scientific 
schools  and  workshops  of  Germany.  It  was  tow 
ards  his  own  laboratory  and  his  own  workshops, 
which  lay  out  in  the  country  far  beyond  the  wide 
line  of  buildings  and  settlements  which  line  the 
western  bank  of  the  Hudson,  that  his  heart  went 
out  and  his  eyes  vainly  strove  to  follow. 

Skilfully  steered,  the  Thalia  moved  slowly  be 
tween  high  stone  piers  of  massive  construction  ; 
but  the  Euterpe,  or  upper  part  of  the  vessel,  did 
not  pass  between  the  piers,  but  over  them  both, 
and  when  the  pier-heads  projected  beyond  her 
stern  the  motion  of  the  lower  vessel  ceased  ;  then 
the  great  piston,  which  supported  the  socket  in 
which  the  ball  of  the  Euterpe  moved,  slowly  began 
to  descend  into  the  central  portion  of  the  Thalia, 
and  as  the  tide  was  low,  it  was  not  long  before 
each  side  of  the  upper  hull  rested  firmly  and  se 
curely  upon  the  stone  piers.  Then  the  socket  on 
the  lower  vessel  descended  rapidly  until  it  was 
entirely  clear  of  the  ball,  and  the  Thalia  backed 
out  from  between  the  piers  to  take  its  place  in  a 
dock  where  it  would  be  fitted  for  the  voyage  of 
the  next  day  but  one,  when  it  would  move  under 
the  Melpomene,  resting  on  its  piers  a  short  dis 
tance  below,  and,  adjusting  its  socket  to  her  ball, 
would  lift  her  free  from  the  piers  and  carry  her 
across  the  ocean. 


THE    ARRIVAL    OF    THE    EUTERPE-THALIA  5 

The  pier  of  the  Euterpe  was  not  far  from  the 
great  Long  Island  and  New  Jersey  Bridge,  and 
Roland  Clewe,  when  he  reached  the  broad  side 
walk  which  ran  along  the  river  -  front,  walked 
rapidly  towards  the  bridge.  When  he  came  to  it 
he  stepped  into  one  of  the  elevators,  which  were 
placed  at  intervals  along  its  sides  from  the  water 
front  to  the  far-distant  point  where  it  touched 
the -land,  and  in  company  with  a  dozen  other 
pedestrians  speedily  rose  to  the  top  of  the 
bridge,  on  which  moved  two  great  platforms 
or  floors,  one  always  keeping  on  its  way  to  the 
east,  and  the  other  to  the  west.  The  floor  of 
the  elevator  detached  itself  from  the  rest  of 
the  structure  and  kept  company  with  the  mov 
able  platform  until  all  of  its  passengers  had 
stepped  on  to  the  latter,  when  it  returned  with 
such  persons  as  wished  to  descend  at  that 
point. 

As  Clewe  took  his  way  along  the  platform, 
walking  westward  with  it,  as  if  he  would  thus 
hasten  his  arrival  at  the  other  end  of  the  bridge, 
he  noticed  that  great  improvements  had  been 
made  during  his  year  of  absence.  The  structures 
on  the  platforms,  to  which  people  might  retire  in 
bad  weather  or  when  they  wished  refreshments, 
were  more  numerous  and  apparently  better  ap 
pointed  than  when  he  had  seen  them  last,  and  the 
long  rows  of  benches  on  which  passengers  might 
sit  in  the  open  air  during  their  transit  had  also 
increased  in  number.  Many  people  walked  across 
the  bridge,  taking  their  exercise,  while  some  who 
were  out  for  the  air  and  the  sake  of  the  view 
walked  in  the  direction  opposite  to  that  in  which 


6  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF    SARDIS 

the  platform  was  moving,  thus  lengthening  the 
pleasant  trip. 

At  the  great  elevator  over  the  old  Battery  many 
passengers  went  down  and  many  came  up,  but  the 
wide  platforms  still  moved  to  the  east  and  moved 
to  the  west,  never  stopping  or  changing  their  rate 
of  speed. 

Roland  Clewe  remained  on  the  bridge  until  he 
had  reached  its  western  end,  far  out  on  the  old 
Jersey  flats,  and  there  he  took  a  car  of  the  sus 
pended  electric  line,  which  would  carry  him  to  his 
home,  some  fifty  miles  in  the  interior.  The  rails 
of  this  line  ran  along  the  top  of  parallel  timbers, 
some  twenty  feet  from  the  ground,  and  below  and 
between  these  rails  the  cars  were  suspended,  the 
wheels  which  rested  on  the  rails  being  attached 
near  the  top  of  the  car.  Thus  it  was  impossible 
for  the  cars  to  run  off  the  track  ;  and  as  their 
bottoms  or  floors  were  ten  or  twelve  feet  from 
the  ground,  they  could  meet  with  no  dangerous 
obstacles.  In  consequence  of  the  safety  of  this 
structure,  the  trains  were  run  at  a  very  high 
speed. 

Roland  Clewe  was  a  man  who  had  given  his 
life,  even  before  he  ceased  to  be  a  boy,  to  the  in 
vestigation  of  physical  science  and  its  applica 
tions,  and  those  who  thought  they  knew  him 
called  him  a  great  inventor  ;  but  he,  who  knew 
himself  better  than  any  one  else  could  know  him, 
was  aware  that,  so  far,  he  had  not  invented  any- 
//  thing  worthy  the  power  which  he  felt  withui  him 
self. 

After  the  tidal  wave  of  improvements  and  dis 
coveries  which  had  burst  upon  the  world  at  the 


THE    ARRIVAL    OF    THE    EUTERPE-THALIA  7 

end  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  had  been  a 
gradual  subsidence  of  the  waters  of  human  prog 
ress,  and  year  by  year  they  sank  lower  and  lower, 
until,  when  the  twentieth  century  was  yet  young, 
it  was  a  common  thing  to  say  that  the  human 
race  seemed  to  have  gone  backward  fifty  or  even 
a  hundred  years. 

It  had  become  fashionable  to  be  unprogressive. 
Like  old  furniture  in  the  century  which  had  gone 
out,  old  manners,  customs,  and  ideas  had  now 
become  more  attractive  than  those  which  were 
modern  and  present.  Philosophers  said  that  so 
ciety  was  retrograding,  that  it  was  becoming  sat 
isfied  with  less  than  was  its  due  ;  but  society  an 
swered  that  it  was  falling  back  upon  the  things 
of  its  ancestors,  which  were  sounder  and  firmer, 
more  simple  and  beautiful,  more  worthy  of  the  true 
man  and  woman,  than  all  that  mass  of  harassing 
improvement  which  had  swept  down  upon  man 
kind  in  the  troubled  and  nervous  days  at  the  end 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

On  the  great  highways,  smooth  and  beautiful, 
the  stage-coach  had  taken  the  place  to  a  great 
degree  of  the  railroad  train  ;  the  steamship,  which 
moved  most  evenly  and  with  less  of  the  jarring 
and  shaking  consequent  upon  high  speed,  was  the 
favored  vessel  with  ocean  travellers.  It  was  not 
considered  good  form  to  read  the  daily  papers  ; 
and  only  those  hurried  to  their  business  who  were 
obliged  to  do  so  in  order  that  their  employers 
might  attend  to  their  affairs  in  the  leisurely  man 
ner  which  was  then  the  custom  of  the  business 
world. 

Fast  horses  had  become  almost  unknown,  and 


8  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

with  those  who  still  used  these  animals  a  steady 
walker  was  the  favorite.  Bicycles  had  gone  out 
as  the  new  century  came  in,  it  being  a  matter  of 
course  that  they  should  be  superseded  by  the  new 
electric  vehicles  of  every  sort  and  fashion,  on 
which  one  could  work  the  pedals  if  he  desired 
exercise,  or  sit  quietly  if  his  inclinations  were 
otherwise,  and  only  the  very  young  or  the  in 
temperate  allowed  themselves  rapid  motion  on 
their  electric  wheels.  It  would  have  been  con 
sidered  as  vulgar  at  that  time  to  speed  over  a 
smooth  road  as  it  would  have  been  thought  in 
the  nineteenth  century  to  run  along  the  city 
sidewalk. 

People  thought  the  world  moved  slower  ;  at  all 
events,  they  hoped  it  would  soon  do  so.  Even 
the  wiser  revolutionists  postponed  their  out 
breaks.  Success,  they  believed,  was  fain  to  smile 
upon  effort  which  had  been  well  postponed. 

Men  came  to  look  upon  a  telegram  as  an  in 
sult  ;  the  telephone  was  preferred,  because  it  al 
lowed  one  to  speak  slowly  if  he  chose.  Snap-shot 
cameras  were  found  only  in  the  garrets.  The  fif 
teen  minutes'  sittings  now  in  vogue  threw  upon 
the  plate  the  color  of  the  eyes,  hair,  and  the 
flesh  tones  of  the  sitter.  Ladies  wore  hoop 
skirts. 

But  these  days  of  passivism  at  last  passed  by  ; 
earnest  thinkers  had  not  believed  in  them  ;  they 
knew  they  were  simply  reactionary,  and  could 
not  last ;  and  the  century  was  not  twenty  years 
old  when  the  world  found  itself  in  a  storm  of  ac 
tive  effort  never  known  in  its  history  before. 
Religion,  politics,  literature,  and  art  were  called 


THE    ARRIVAL    OF    THE    EUTERPE-THALIA  9 

upon  to  get  up  and  shake  themselves  free  of  the 
drowsiness  of  their  years  of  inaction. 

On  that  great  and  crowded  stage  where  the 
thinkers  of  the  world  were  busy  in  creating  new 
parts  for  themselves  without  much  reference  to 
what  other  people  were  doing  in  their  parts,  Ro 
land  Clewe  was  now  ready  to  start  again,  with 
more  earnestness  and  enthusiasm  than  before,  to 
essay  a  character  which,  if  acted  as  he  wished  to 
act  it,  would  give  him  exceptional  honor  and 
fame,  and  to  the  world,  perhaps,  exceptional  ad 
vantage. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE    SARDIS    WORKS 

AT  the  little  station  of  Sardis,  in  the  hill  coun 
try  of  New  Jersey,  Roland  Clewe  alighted  from 
the  train,  and  almost  instantly  his  hand  was 
grasped  by  an  elderly  man,  plainly  and  even 
roughly  dressed,  who  appeared  wonderfully  glad 
to  see  him.  Clewe  also  was  greatly  pleased  at 
the  meeting. 

"Tell  me,  Samuel,  how  goes  everything?"  said 
Clewe,  as  they  walked  off.  "  Have  you  anything 
to  say  that  you  did  not  telegraph  ?  How  is  your 
wife  ?" 

"She's  all  right,"  was  the  answer.  "And 
there's  nothin'  happened,  except,  night  before 
last,  a  man  tried  to  look  into  your  lens-house." 

"  How  did  he  do  that  ?"  exclaimed  Clewe,  sud 
denly  turning  upon  his  companion.  "I  am 
amazed  !  Did  he  use  a  ladder  ?" 

Old  Samuel  grinned.  "  He  couldn't  do  that, 
you  know,  for  the  flexible  fence  would  keep  him 
off.  No  ;  he  sailed  over  the  place  in  one  of  those 
air-screw  machines,  with  a  fan  workin'  under  the 
car  to  keep  it  up." 

"  And  so  he  soared  up  above  my  glass  roof  and 
looked  down,  I  suppose  ?" 

"That's  what  he  did,"  said  Samuel;  "but  he 


THE   SARDIS   WORKS  II 

had  a  good  deal  of  trouble  doin'  it.  It  was  moon 
light,  and  I  watched  him." 

"Why  didn't  you  fire  at  him?"  asked  Clewe. 
"  Or  at  least  let  fly  one  of  the  ammonia  squirts 
and  bring  him  down  ?" 

"  I  wanted  to  see  what  he  would  do,"  said  the 
old  man.  "The  machine  he  had  couldn't  be 
steered,  of  course.  He  could  go  up  well  enough, 
but  the  wind  took  him  where  it  wanted  to.  But 
I  must  give  this  feller  the  credit  of  sayin'  that 
he  managed  his  basket  pretty  well.  He  carried 
it  a  good  way  to  the  windward  of  the  lens-house, 
and  then  sent  it  up,  expectin'  the  wind  to  take  it 
directly  over  the  glass  roof,  but  it  shifted  a  little, 
and  so  he  missed  the  roof  and  had  to  try  it  again. 
He  made  two  or  three  bad  jobs  of  it,  but  finally 
managed  it  by  hitchin'  a  long  cord  to  a  tree,  and 
then  the  wind  held  him  there  steady  enough  to 
let  him  look  down  for  a  good  while." 

"You  don't  tell  me  that !"  cried  Clewe.  "  Did 
you  stay  there  and  let  him  look  down  into  my 
lens-house  ?" 

The  old  man  laughed.  "  I  let  him  look  down," 
said  he,  "  but  he  didn't  see  nothin'.  I  was  laughin' 
at  him  all  the  time  he  was  at  work.  He  had  his 
instruments  with  him,  and  he  was  turnin'  down 
his  different  kinds  of  lights,  thinkin',  of  course, 
that  he  could  see  through  any  kind  of  coverin' 
that  we  put  over  our  machines  ;  but,  bless  you  ! 
he  couldn't  do  nothin',  and  I  could  almost  hear 
him  swear  as  he  rubbed  his  eyes  after  he  had 
been  lookin'  down  for  a  little  while." 

Clewe  laughed.  "  I  see,"  said  he.  "  I  suppose 
you  turned  on  the  photo-hose." 


12  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF   SARDIS 

"  That's  just  what  I  did,"  said  the  old  man. 
"  Every  night  while  you  were  away  I  had  the 
lens-room  filled  with  the  revolving-light  squirts, 
and  when  these  were  turned  on  I  knew  there 
was  no  gettin'  any  kind  of  rays  through  them. 
A  feller  may  look  through  a  roof  and  a  wall, 
but  he  can't  look  through  light  comin'  the  other 
way,  especially  when  it's  twistin'  and  curlin'  and 
spittin'." 

"  That's  a  capital  idea,"  said  Clewe.  "  I  nev 
er  thought  of  using  the  photo-hose  in  that  way. 
But  there  are  very  few  people  in  this  world  who 
would  know  anything  about  my  new  lens  ma 
chinery  even  if  they  saw  it.  This  fellow  must 
have  been  that  Pole,  Rovinski.  I  met  him  in 
Europe,  and  I  think  he  came  over  here  not  long 
before  I  did." 

"  That's  the  man,  sir,"  said  Samuel,  "  I  turned 
a  needle  search-light  on  him  just  as  he  was  givin' 
up  the  business,  and  I  have  got  a  little  photo 
graph  of  him  at  the  house.  His  face  is  mostly 
beard,  but  you'll  know  him." 

"What  became  of  him?"  asked  Clewe. 

"  My  light  frightened  him,"  he  said,  "  and  the 
wind  took  him  over  into  the  woods.  I  thought, 
as  you  were  comin'  home  so  soon,  I  wouldn't  do 
nothin'  more.  You  had  better  attend  to  him 
yourself." 

"  Very  good,"  said  Clewe.     "  I'll  do  that." 

The  home  of  Roland  Clewe,  a  small  house 
plainly  furnished,  but  good  enough  for  a  bache 
lor's  quarters,  stood  not  half  a  mile  from  the  sta 
tion,  and  near  it  were  the  extensive  buildings 
which  he  called  his  Works.  Here  were  labora- 


ROVINSKI    MAKING   OBSERVATIONS 


THE    SARDIS   WORKS  13 

tories,  large  machine-shops  in  which  many  men 
were  busy  at  all  sorts  of  strange  contrivances 
in  metal  and  other  materials ;  and  besides  other 
small  edifices  there  was  a  great  round  tower- 
like  structure,  with  smooth  iron  walls  thirty  feet 
high  and  without  windows,  and  which  was  lighted 
and  ventilated  from  the  top.  This  was  Clewe's 
special  workshop  ;  and  besides  old  Samuel  Block 
and  such  workmen  as  were  absolutely  necessary 
and  could  be  trusted,  few  people  ever  entered  it 
but  himself.  The  industries  in  the  various  build 
ings  were  diverse,  some  of  them  having  no  ap 
parent  relation  to  the  others.  Each  of  them  was 
expected  to  turn  out  something  which  would  rev 
olutionize  something  or  other  in  this  world,  but 
it  was  to  his  lens-house  that  Roland  Clewe  gave, 
in  these  days,  his  special  attention.  Here  a  great 
enterprise  was  soon  to  begin,  more  important  in 
his  eyes  than  anything  else  which  had  engaged 
human  endeavor. 

When  sometimes  in  his  moments  of  reflection 
he  felt  obliged  to  consider  the  wonders  of  applied 
electricity,  and  give  them  their  due  place  in  com 
parison  with  the  great  problem  he  expected  to 
solve,  he  had  his  moments  of  doubt.  But  these 
moments  did  not  come  frequently.  The  day 
would  arrive  when  from  his  lens -house  there 
would  be  promulgated  a  great  discovery  which 
would  astonish  the  world. 

During  Roland  Clewe's  absence  in  Germany 
his  works  had  been  left  under  the  general  charge 
of  Samuel  Block.  This  old  man  was  not  a  scien 
tific  person  ;  he  was  not  a  skilled  mechanic ;  in 
fact,  he  had  been  in  early  life  a  shoemaker.  But 


14  THE    GREAT   STONE   OF   SARDIS 

when  Roland  Clewe,  some  five  years  before,  had 
put  up  his  works  near  the  little  village  of  Sardis, 
he  had  sent  for  Block,  whom  he  had  known  all 
his  life  and  who  was  at  that  time  the  tenant  of  a 
small  farm,  built  a  cottage  for  him  and  his  wife, 
and  told  him  to  take  care  of  the  place.  From 
planning  the  grounds  and  superintending  fences, 
old  Sammy  had  begun  to  keep  an  eye  upon  build 
ers  and  mechanics  ;  and,  being  a  very  shrewd  man, 
he  had  gradually  widened  the  sphere  of  his  care- 
taking,  until,  at  this  time,  he  exercised  a  nominal 
supervision  over  all  the  buildings.  He  knew  what 
was  going  on  in  each  ;  he  had  a  good  idea,  some 
times,  of  the  scientific  basis  of  this  or  that  bit  of 
machinery,  and  had  gradually  become  acquainted 
with  the  workings  and  management  of  many  of 
the  instruments  ;  and  now  and  then  he  gave  to 
his  employer  very  good  hints  in  regard  to  the 
means  of  attaining  an  end,  more  especially  in  the 
line  of  doing  something  by  instrumentalities  not 
intended  for  that  purpose.  If  Sammy  could  take 
any  machine  which  had  been  constructed  to  bore 
holes,  and  with  it  plug  up  orifices,  he  would  con 
sider  that  he  had  been  of  advantage  to  his  kind. 

Block  was  a  thoroughly  loyal  man.  The  inter 
ests  of  his  employer  were  always  held  by  him  first 
and  above  everything.  But  although  the  old 
man  understood,  sometimes  very  well,  and  always 
in  a  fair  degree,  what  the  inventor  was  trying  to 
accomplish,  and  appreciated  the  magnitude  and 
often  the  amazing  nature  of  his  operations,  he 
never  believed  in  any  of  them. 

Sammy  was  a  thoroughly  old-fashioned  man. 
He  had  been  born  and  had  grown  up  in  the 


THE    SARDIS   WORKS  15 

days  when  a  steam-locomotive  was  good  enough 
and  fast  enough  for  any  sensible  traveller,  and  he 
greatly  preferred  a  good  pair  of  horses  to  any 
vehicle  which  one  steered  with  a  handle  and  reg 
ulated  the  speed  thereof  with  a  knob.  Roland 
Clewe  might  devise  all  the  wonderful  contriv 
ances  he  pleased,  and  he  might  do  all  sorts  of 
astonishing  things  with  them,  but  Sammy  would 
still  be  of  the  opinion  that,  even  if  the  machines 
did  all  that  they  were  expected  to  do,  the  things 
they  did  generally  would  not  be  worth  the 
doing. 

Still,  the  old  man  would  not  interfere  by  word 
or  deed  with  any  of  the  plans  or  actions  of  his 
employer.  On  the  contrary,  he  would  help  him 
in  every  possible  way — by  fidelity,  by  suggestion, 
by  constant  devotion  and  industry  ;  but,  in  spite 
of  all  that,  it  was  one  of  the  most  firmly  founded 
principles  of  his  life  that  Roland  Clewe  had  no 
right  to  ask  him  to  believe  in  the  value  of  the 
wild  and  amazing  schemes  he  had  on  hand. 

Before  Roland  Clewe  slept  that  night  he  had 
visited  all  his  workshops,  factories,  and  labora 
tories.  His  men  had  been  busily  occupied  dur 
ing  his  absence  under  the  directions  of  their  vari 
ous  special  managers,  and  those  in  charge  were  of 
the  opinion  that  everything  had  progressed  as 
favorably  and  as  rapidly  as  should  have  been  ex 
pected  ;  but  Roland  Clewe  was  not  satisfied,  even 
though  many  of  his  inventions  and  machines 
were  much  nearer  completion  than  he  had  ex 
pected  to  find  them.  The  work  necessary  to  be 
done  in  his  lens-house  before  he  could  go  on  with 
the  great  work  of  his  life  was  not  yet  finished. 


1 6  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

As  well  as  he  could  judge,  it  would  be  a  month 
or  two  before  he  could  devote  himself  to  those 
labors  in  his  lens-house  the  thought  of  which  had 
so  long  filled  his  mind  by  day,  and  even  during 
his  sleep. 


CHAPTER    III 

MARGARET    RALEIGH 

AFTER  breakfast  the  following  morning  Roland 
Clewe  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  over  to  a 
handsome  house  which  stood  upon  a  hill  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  from  Sardis.  Horses,  which  had 
almost  gone  out  of  use  during  the  first  third  of 
the  century,  were  now  getting  to  be  somewhat 
in  fashion  again.  Many  people  now  appreciated 
the  pleasure  which  these  animals  had  given  to 
the  world  since  the  beginning  of  history,  and 
whose  place,  in  an  aesthetic  sense,  no  inanimate 
machine  could  supply.  As  Roland  Clewe  swung 
himself  from  the  saddle  at  the  foot  of  a  broad 
flight  of  steps,  the  house  door  was  opened  and  a 
lady  appeared. 

"  I  saw  you  coming !"  she  exclaimed,  running 
down  the  steps  to  meet  him. 

She  was  a  handsome  woman,  inclined  to  be  tall, 
and  some  five  years  younger  than  Clewe.  This 
was  Mrs.  Margaret  Raleigh,  partner  with  Roland 
Clewe  in  the  works  at  Sardis,  and,  in  fact,  the 
principal  owner  of  that  great  estate.  She  was  a 
widow,  and  her  husband  had  been  not  only  a 
man  of  science,  but  a  very  rich  man  ;  and  when 
he  died,  at  the  outset  of  his  career,  his  widow 
believed  it  her  duty  to  devote  his  fortune  to  the 


1 8  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

prosecution  and  development  of  scientific  works. 
She  knew  Roland  Clewe  as  a  hard  student  and 
worker,  as  a  man  of  brilliant  and  original  ideas, 
and  as  the  originator  of  schemes  which,  if  carried 
out  successfully,  would  place  him  among  the 
great  inventors  of  the  world. 

She  was  not  a  scientific  woman  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  word,  but  she  had  a  most  thorough 
and  appreciative  sympathy  with  all  forms  of 
physical  research,  and  there  was  a  distinctiveness 
and  grandeur  in  the  aims  towards  which  Roland 
Clewe  had  directed  his  life  work  which  deter 
mined  her  to  unite,  with  all  the  power  of  her 
money  and  her  personal  encouragement,  in  the 
labors  he  had  set  for  himself. 

Therefore  it  was  that  the  main  part  of  the 
fortune  left  by  Herbert  Raleigh  had  been  in 
vested  in  the  shops  and  foundries  at  Sardis,  and 
that  Roland  Clewe  and  Margaret  Raleigh  were 
partners  and  co-owners  in  the  business  and  the 
plant  of  the  establishment. 

"  I  am  glad  to  welcome  you  back,"  said  she, 
her  hand  in  his.  "  But  it  strikes  me  as  odd  to 
see  you  come  upon  a  horse  ;  I  should  have  sup 
posed  that  by  this  time  you  would  arrive  sliding 
over  the  tree-tops  on  a  pair  of  aerial  skates." 

"  No,"  said  he.  "  I  may  invent  that  sort  of 
thing,  but  I  prefer  to  use  a  horse.  Don't  you 
remember  my  mare  ?  I  rode-  her  before  I  went 
away.  I  left  her  in  old  Sammy's  charge,  and  he 
has  been  riding  her  every  day." 

"And  glad  enough  to  do  it,  I  am  sure,"  said 
she,  "  for  I  have  heard  him  say  that  the  things 
he  hates  most  in  this  world  are  dead  legs.  '  When 


MARGARET    RALEIGH  19 

I  can't  use  mine,'  he  said, '  let  me  have  some  others 
that  are  alive.'  This  is  such  a  pretty  creature," 
she  added,  as  Clewe  was  looking  about  for  some 
place  to  which  he  might  tie  his  animal,  "  that  I 
have  a  great  mind  to  learn  to  ride  myself  !" 

"  A  woman  on  a  horse  would  be  a  queer  sight," 
said  he  ;  and  with  this  they  went  into  the  house. 

The  conference  that  morning  in  Mrs.  Raleigh's 
library  was  a  long  and  somewhat  anxious  one. 
For  several  years  the  money  of  the  Raleigh  es 
tate  had  been  freely  and  generously  expended 
upon  the  enterprises  in  hand  at  the  Sardis  Works, 
but  so  far  nothing  of  important  profit  had  re 
sulted  from  the  operations.  Many  things  had 
been  carried  on  satisfactorily  and  successfully  to 
various  stages,  but  nothing  had  been  finished  ; 
and  now  the  two  partners  had  to  admit  that  the 
work  which  Clewe  had  expected  to  begin  imme 
diately  upon  his  return  from  Europe  must  be 
postponed. 

Still,  there  was  no  sign  of  discouragement  in 
the  voices  or  the  faces  —  it  may  be  said,  in  the 
souls. — of  the  man  and  woman  who  sat  there 
talking  across  a  table.  He  was  as  full  of  hope  as 
ever  he  was,  and  she  as  full  of  faith. 

They  were  an  interesting  couple  to  look  upon. 
He,  dark,  a  little  hollow  in  the  cheeks,  a  slight 
line  or  two  of  anxiety  in  the  forehead,  a  hand 
some,  well-cut  mouth,  without  beard,  and  a  frame 
somewhat  spare  but  strong  ;  a  man  of  grace 
ful  but  unaffected  action,  dressed  in  a  riding-coat, 
breeches,  and  leather  leggings.  She,  her  cheeks 
colored  with  earnest  purpose,  her  gray  eyes  rather 
larger  than  usual  as  she  looked  up  from  the 


20  THE   GREAT    STONE    OP   SARDIS 

paper  where  she  had  been  calculating,  was  dressed 
in  the  simple  artistic  fashion  of  the  day.  The 
falling  folds  of  the  semi-clinging  fabrics  accom 
modated  themselves  well  to  a  figure  which  even 
at  that  moment  of  rest  suggested  latent  energy 
and  activity. 

"  If  we  have  to  wait  for  the  Artesian  ray,"  she 
said,  "  we  must  try  to  carry  out  something  else. 
People  are  watching  us,  talking  of  us,  expecting 
something  of  us  ;  we  must  give  them  something. 
Now  the  question  is,  what  shall  that  be  ?" 

"  The  way  I  look  at  it  is  this,"  said  her  com 
panion.  "  For  a  long  time  you  have  been  watch 
ing  and  waiting  and  expecting  something,  and 
it  is  time  that  I  should  give  you  something  ;  now 
the  question  is — 

"Not  at  all,"  said  she,  interrupting.  "You 
arrogate  too  much  to  yourself.  I  don't  expect 
you  to  give  anything  to  me.  We  are  working 
together,  and  it  is  both  of  us  who  must  give  this 
poor  old  world  something  to  satisfy  it  for  a  while, 
until  we  can  disclose  to  it  that  grand  discovery, 
grander  than  anything  that  it  has  ever  even  im 
agined.  I  want  to  go  on  talking  about  it,  but  I 
shall  not  do  it ;  we  must  keep  our  minds  tied 
down  to  some  present  purpose.  Now,  Mr.  Clewe, 
what  is  there  that  we  can  take  up  and  carry  on 
immediately  ?  Can  it  be  the  great  shell  ?" 

Clewe  shook  his  head. 

"  No,"  said  he  ;  "  that  is  progressing  admirably, 
but  many  things  are  necessary  before  we  can  ex 
periment  with  it." 

"  Since  you  were  away,"  said  she,  "  I  have  often 
been  down  to  the  works  to  look  at  it,  but  every- 


MARGARET    RALEIGH  21 

thing  about  it  seems  to  go  so  slowly.  However, 
I  suppose  it  will  go  fast  enough  when  it  is  fin 
ished." 

"  Yes,"  said  he.  "  I  hope  it  will  go  fast  enough 
to  overturn  the  artillery  of  the  world  ;  but,  as 
you  say,  don't  let  us  talk  about  the  things  for 
which  we  must  wait.  I  will  carefully  consider 
everything  that  is  in  operation,  and  to-morrow 
I  will  suggest  something  with  which  we  can  go 
on." 

"  After  all,"  said  she,  as  they  stood  together  be 
fore  parting,  "  I  cannot  take  my  rnind  from  the  (j 
Artesian  ray." 

"  Nor  can  I,"  he  answered  ;  "  but  for  the  present 
we  must  put  our  hands  to  work  at  something 
else." 

The  Artesian  ray,  of  which  these  two  spoke, 
was  an  invention  upon  which  Roland  Clewe  had 
been  experimenting  for  a  long  time,  and  which 
was  and  had  been  the  object  of  his  labors  and 
studies  while  in  Europe.  In  the  first  decade  of 
the  century  it  had  been  generally  supposed  that 
the  X  ray,  or  cathode  ray,  had  been  developed 
and  applied  to  the  utmost  extent  of  its  capability. 
It  was  used  in  surgery  and  in  mechanical  arts, 
and  in  many  varieties  of  scientific  operations, 
but  no  considerable  advance  in  its  line  of  applica 
tion  had  been  recognized  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury. 

But  Roland  Clewe  had  come  to  believe  in  the 
existence  of  a  photic  force,  somewhat  similar  to 
the  cathode  ray,  but  of  infinitely  greater  signifi 
cance  and  importance  to  the  searcher  after  physi- 


22  THE  GREAT   STONE   OF   SARDIS 

cal  truth.  Simply  described,  his  discovery  was 
a  powerful  ray  produced  by  a  new  combina 
tion  of  electric  lights,  which  would  penetrate 
down  into  the  earth,  passing  through  all  sub 
stances  which  it  met  in  its  way,  and  illuminat 
ing  and  disclosing  everything  through  which  it 
passed. 

All  matter  likely  to  be  found  beneath  the  sur 
face  of  the  earth  in  that  part  of  the  country  had 
been  experimented  upon  by  Clewe,  and  nothing 
had  resisted  the  penetrating  and  illuminating  in 
fluence  of  his  ray — well  called  Artesian  ray,  for  it 
was  intended  to  bore  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 
After  making  many  minor  trials  of  the  force  and 
powers  of  his  light,  Roland  Clewe  had  undertaken 
the  construction  of  a  massive  apparatus,  by  which 
he  believed  a  ray  could  be  generated  which,  little 
by  little,  perhaps  foot  by  foot,  would  penetrate 
into  the  earth  and  light  up  everything  between 
the  farthest  point  it  had  attained  and  the  lenses 
of  his  machine.  That  is  to  say,  he  hoped  to  pro 
duce  a  long  hole  of  light  about  three  feet  in  di 
ameter  and  as  deep  as  it  was  possible  to  make 
it  descend,  in  which  he  could  see  all  the  various 
strata  and  deposits  of  which  the  earth  is  com 
posed.  How  far  he  could  send  down  this  pierc 
ing  cylinder  of  light  he  did  not  allow  himself  to 
consider.  With  a  small  and  imperfect  machine 
he  had  seen  several  feet  into  the  ground  ;  with  a 
great  and  powerful  apparatus,  such  as  he  was 
now  constructing,  why  should  he  not  look  down 
below  the  deepest  point  to  which  man's  knowl 
edge  had  ever  reached?  Down  so  far  that  he 
must  follow  his  descending  light  with  a  tele- 


MARGARET   RALEIGH  23 

scope  ;  down,  down  until  he  had  discovered  the 
hidden  secrets  of  the  earth  ! 

The  peculiar  quality  of  this  light,  which  gave 
it  its  great  pre-eminence  over  all  other  penetrat 
ing  rays,  was  the  power  it  possessed  of  illumi 
nating  an  object ;  passing  through  it ;  render 
ing  it  transparent  and  invisible  ;  illuminating  the 
opaque  substance  it  next  met  in  its  path,  and 
afterwards  rendering  that  transparent.  If  the 
rocks  and  earth  in  the  cylindrical  cavities  of 
light  which  Clewe  had  already  produced  in  his 
experiments  had  actually  been  removed  with 
pickaxes  and  shovels,  the  lighted  hole  a  few  feet 
in  depth  could  not  have  appeared  more  real,  the 
bottom  and  sides  of  the  little  well  could  not  have 
been  revealed  more  sharply  and  distinctly  ;  and 
yet  there  was  no  hole  in  the  ground,  and  if  one 
should  try  to  put  his  foot  into  the  lighted  per 
foration  he  would  find  it  as  solid  as  any  other 
part  of  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE   MISSION    OF    SAMUEL   BLOCK 

NOT  far  from  the  works  at  Sardis  there  was  a 
large  pond,  which  was  formed  by  the  damming 
of  a  stream  which  at  this  point  ran  between  high 
hills.  In  order  to  obtain  a  sufficient  depth  of 
water  for  his  marine  experiments,  Roland  Clewe 
had  built  an  unusually  high  and  strong  dam,  and 
this  body  of  water,  which  was  called  the  lake, 
widened  out  considerably  behind  the  dam  and 
stretched  back  for  more  than  half  a  mile. 

He  was  standing  on  the  shore  of  this  lake,  early 
the  next  morning,  in  company  with  several  work 
men,  examining  a  curious-looking  vessel  which 
was  moored  near  by,  when  Margaret  Raleigh 
came  walking  towards  him.  When  he  saw  her 
he  left  the  men  and  went  to  meet  her. 

"You  could  not  wait  until  I  came  to  your 
house  to  tell  you  what  I  was  going  to  do  ?"  he 
said,  smiling. 

"  No,"  she  answered,  "  I  could  not.  The  Arte 
sian  ray  kept  me  awake  nearly  all  night,  and  I 
felt  that  I  must  quiet  myjmnd  as  soon  as  I  could 
by  giving  it  something  real  and  tangible  to  take 
hold  of.  Now  what  is  it  that  you  are  going  to 
do  ?  Anything  in  the  ship  line  ?" 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "it  is  something  in  that  line. 


THE   MISSION   OP   SAMUEL   BLOCK  25 

But  let  us  walk  back  a  little ;  I  am  not  quite 
ready  to  tell  the  men  everything.  I  have  been 
thinking,"  he  said,  as  they  moved  together  from 
the  lake,  "of  that  practical  enterprise  which  we 
must  take  up  and  finish,  in  order  to  justify  our 
selves  to  the  public  and  those  who  have  in  vari 
ous  ways  backed  up  our  enterprises,  and  I  have 
concluded  that  the  best  thing  I  can  do  is  to 
carry  out  my  plan  of  going  to  the  north  pole." 

"  What !"  she  exclaimed.  "  You  are  not  going 
to  try  to  do  that — you,  yourself  ?"  And  as  she 
spoke,  her  voice  trembled  a  little. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  I  thought  I  would  go  myself, 
or  else  send  Sammy." 

She  laughed. 

"  Ridiculous  !"  said  she.  "  Send  Sammy  Block  ! 
You  are  joking  ?" 

"  No,"  said  he,  "  I  am  not.  I  have  been  plan 
ning  the  expedition,  and  I  think  Sammy  would 
be  an  excellent  man  to  take  charge  of  it.  I  might 
go  part  of  the  way — at  least,  far  enough  to  start 
him — and  I  could  so  arrange  matters  that  Sam 
my  would  have  no  difficulty  in  finishing  the  ex 
pedition,  but  I  do  not  think  that  I  could  give  up 
all  the  time  that  such  an  enterprise  deserves.  It 
is  not  enough  to  merely  find  the  pole  ;  one  should 
stay  there  and  make  observations  which  would 
be  of  service." 

"  But  if  Sammy  finishes  the  journey  himself," 
she  said,  "his  will  be  the  glory." 

"  Let  him  have  it,"  replied  Clewe.  "  If  my 
method  of  arctic  exploration  solves  the  great 
problem  of  the  pole,  I  shall  be  satisfied  with  the 
glory  I  get  from  the  conception.  The  mere  jour- 


26  THE   GREAT   STONE    OF    SARDIS 

ney  to  the  northern  end  of  the  earth's  axis  is  of 
slight  importance.  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  Sam 
my  go  first,  and  have  as  many  follow  him  as  may 
choose  to  travel  in  that  direction." 

"  Yet  it  is  a  great  achievement,"  said  she.  "  I 
would  give  much  to  be  the  first  human  being 
who  has  placed  his  foot  upon  the  north  pole." 

"You  would  get  it  wet,  I  am  afraid,"  said 
Clewe,  smiling ;  "  but  that  is  not  the  kind  of 
glory  I  crave.  If  I  can  help  a  man  to  go  there, 
I  shall  be  very  willing  to  do  so,  provided  he  will 
make  me  a  favorable  report  of  his  discoveries." 

"Tell  me  all  about  it,"  she  said  —  "when  will 
you  start?  How  many  will  go ?" 

"  There  is  some  work  to  be  done  on  that  boat," 
said  he.  "  Let  me  set  the  men  at  it,  and  then  we 
will  go  into  the  office,  and  I  will  lay  everything 
before  you." 

When  they  were  seated  in  a  quiet  little  room 
attached  to  one  of  the  large  buildings,  Roland 
Clewe  made  ready  to  describe  his  proposed  arctic 
expedition  to  his  partner,  in  whose  mind  the  won 
derful  enterprise  had  entered,  driving  out  the  dis 
turbing  thoughts  of  the  Artesian  ray. 

"  You  have  told  me  about  it  before,"  said  she, 
"but  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  I  have  it  all 
straight  in  my  mind.  You  will  go,  I  suppose,  in 
a  submarine  boat — that  is,  whoever  goes  will  go 
in  it?" 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  for  part  of  the  way.  My  plan 
is  to  proceed  in  an  ordinary  vessel  as  far  north 
as  Cape  Tariff,  taking  the  Dipsey,  my  submarine 
boat,  in  tow.  The  exploring  party,  with  the  nec 
essary  stores  and  instruments,  will  embark  on 


THE   MISSION   OF    SAMUEL   BLOCK  27 

the  Dipsey,  but  before  they  start  they  will  make 
a  telegraphic  connection  with  the  station  at  Cape 
Tariff.  The  Dipsey  will  carry  one  of  those  light, 
portable  cables,  which  will  be  wound  on  a  drum 
in  her  hold,  and  this  will  be  paid  out  as  she  pro 
ceeds  on  her  way.  Thus,  you  see,  by  means  of 
the  cable  from  Cape  Tariff  to  St.  Johns,  we  can 
be  in  continual  communication  with  Sammy,  no 
matter  where  he  may  go  ;  for  there  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  the  ocean  in  those  northern  re 
gions  is  too  deep  to  allow  the  successful  placing 
of  a  telegraphic  cable. 

"  My  plan  is  a  very  simple  one,  but  as  we  have 
not  talked  it  over  for  some  time,  I  will  describe 
it  in  full.  All  explorers  who  have  tried  to  get  to 
the  north  pole  have  met  with  the  same  bad  fort 
une.  They  could  not  pass  over  the  vast  and  aw 
ful  regions  of  ice  which  lay  between  them  and 
the  distant  point  at  which  they  aimed  ;  the  dead 
ly  ice-land  was  always  too  much  for  them  ;  they 
died  or  they  turned  back. 

"When  flying-machines  were  brought  to  sup 
posed  perfection,  some  twenty  years  ago,  it  was 
believed  that  the  pole  would  easily  be  reached, 
but  there  were  always  the  wild  and  wicked  winds, 
in  which  no  steering  apparatus  could  be  relied 
upon.  We  may  steer  and  manage  our  vessels  in 
the  fiercest  storms  at  sea,  but  when  the  ocean 
moves  in  one  great  tidal  wave  our  rudders  are  of 
no  avail.  Everything  rushes  on  together,  and 
our  strongest  ships  are  cast  high  upon  the  land. 

"  So  it  happened  to  the  Canadian  Bagne,  who 
went  in  1927  in  the  best  flying-ship  ever  made, 
and  which  it  was  supposed  could  be  steadily  kept 


28  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

upon  its  way  without  regard  to  the  influence  of 
the  strongest  winds  ;  but  a  great  hurricane  came 
down  from  the  north,  as  if  square  miles  of  at 
mosphere  were  driving  onward  in  a  steady  mass, 
and  hurled  him  and  his  ship  against  an  iceberg, 
and  nothing  of  his  vessel  but  pieces  of  wood  and 
iron,  which  the  bears  could  not  eat,  was  ever  seen 
again.  This  was  the  last  polar  expedition  of  that 
sort,  or  any  sort ;  but  my  plan  is  so  easy  of  ac 
complishment — at  least,  so  it  seems  to  me — and 
so  devoid  of  risk  and  danger,  that  it  amazes  me 
that  it  has  never  been  tried  before.  In  fact,  if  I 
had  not  thought  that  it  would  be  such  a  com 
paratively  easy  thing  to  go  to  the  pole,  I  believe 
I  should  have  been  there  long  ago ;  but  I  have 
always  considered  that  it  could  be  done  at  some 
season  when  more  difficult  and  engrossing  proj 
ects  were  not  pressing  upon  me. 

"What  I  propose  to  do  is  to  sink  down  below 
the  bottom  of  the  ice  in  the  arctic  regions,  and 
then  to  proceed  in  a  direct  line  northward  to  the 
pole.  The  distance  between  the  lower  portions 
of  the  ice  and  the  bottom  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  I 
believe  to  be  quite  sufficient  to  allow  me  all  the 
room  needed  for  navigation.  I  do  not  think  it 
necessary  to  even  consider  the  contingency  of 
the  greatest  iceberg  or  floe  reaching  the  bottom 
of  the  arctic  waters  ;  consequently,  without  trou 
ble  or  danger,  the  Dipsey  can  make  a  straight 
course  for  the  extreme  north. 

"  By  means  of  the  instruments  the  Dipsey  will 
carry  it  will  be  comparatively  easy  to  determine 
the  position  of  the  pole,  and  before  this  point  is 
reached  I  believe  she  will  find  herself  in  an  open 


THE    MISSION   OP    SAMUEL   BLOCK  29 

sea,  where  she  may  rise  to  the  surface.  But  if 
this  should  not  be  the  case,  a  comparatively  thin 
place  in  the  ice  will  be  chosen,  and  a  great  open 
ing  blown  through  it  by  means  of  an  ascensional 
shell,  several  of  which  she  will  carry.  She  will 
then  rise  to  the  surface  of  the  water  in  this  open 
ing,  and  the  necessary  operations  will  be  carried 
on." 

"Mr.  Clewe,"  said  Margaret  Raleigh,  "the 
thing  is  so  terrible  I  cannot  bear  to  think  of  it. 
The  Dipsey  may  have  to  sail  hundreds  and  hun 
dreds  of  miles  under  the  ice,  shut  in  as  if  an 
awful  lid  were  put  over  her.  No  matter  what 
happened  down  there,  she  could  not  come  up  and 
get  out ;  it  would  be  the  same  thing  as  having  a 
vast  sky  of  ice  stretched  out  above  one.  I  should 
think  the  very  idea  of  it  would  make  people  shud 
der  and  die." 

"Oh,  it  is  not  so  bad  as  all  that,"  answered 
Clewe.  "  There  is  nothing  so  dear  to  the  marine 
explorer  as  plenty  of  water,  and  plenty  of  room 
to  sail  in,  and  under  the  ice  the  Dipsey  will  find 
all  that." 

"  But  there  are  so  many  dangers,"  said  she, 
"  that  you  cannot  provide  against  in  advance." 

"That  is  very  true,"  said  he,  "but  I  have 
thought  so  much  about  them,  and  I  have  studied 
and  consulted  so  much  about  them,  that  I  think 
I  have  provided  against  all  the  dangers  we  have 
reason  to  expect.  To  me  the  whole  business 
seems  like  very  plain,  straightforward  sailing." 

"  It  may  seem  so  here,"  said  Margaret  Raleigh, 
"  but  it  will  be  quite  another  thing  out  under  the 
arctic  ice." 


30  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 

Preparations  for  the  expedition  were  pushed 
forward  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  Clewe  would 
have  been  delighted  to  make  this  voyage  into  the 
unseen  regions  of  the  nether  ice,  but  he  knew 
that  it  was  his  duty,  not  to  l°se  time  or  to  risk 
his  life  when  he  was  on  the  brink  of  a  discovery 
far  more  wonderful,  far  more  important  to  the 
world,  than  the  finding  of  the  pole.  Therefore 
he  determined  that  he  would  go  with  the  expe 
dition  no  farther  than  the  point  where  the  ice 
would  prevent  the  farther  progress  of  the  vessel 
in  which  they  would  sail  from  New  York. 

It  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  Roland  Clewe 
intended  to  intrust  such  an  expedition  to  the  ab 
solute  command  of  such  a  man  as  old  Samuel 
Block.  There  would  be  on  board  the  Dipsey  an 
electrician  who  had  long  been  preparing  himself 
for  this  expedition  ;  there  were  to  be  other  scien 
tific  men  ;  there  would  be  a  submarine  engineer, 
and  such  minor  officers  and  assistants  as  would 
be  necessary  ;  but  Clewe  wanted  some  one  who 
would  represent  him,  who  could  be  trusted  to  act 
in  his  place  in  case  of  success  or  of  failure,  who 
could  be  thoroughly  depended  upon  should  a  se 
rious  emergency  arise.  Such  a  man  was  Samuel 
Block,  and,  somewhat  strange  to  say,  old  Sam 
my  was  perfectly  willing  to  go  to  the  pole.  He 
was  always  ready  for  anything  within  bounds  of 
his  duty,  and  those  bounds  included  everything 
which  Mr.  Clewe  wished  done. 

Sammy  was  an  old-fashioned  man,  and  there 
fore,  in  talking  over  arrangements  with  Roland 
Clewe,  he  insisted  upon  having  a  sailor  in  the 
party. 


THE    MISSION    OP   SAMUEL   BLOCK  31 

"  In  old  times,"  said  he,  "  when  I  was  a  young 
man,  nobody  ever  thought  of  settin'  out  on  any 
kind  of  sea-voyagin'  without  havin'  a  sailor  along. 
The  fact  is,  they  used  to  be  pretty  much  all 
sailors." 

"  But  in  this  expedition,"  said  Clewe,  "  a  sailor 
would  be  out  of  place.  One  of  your  old-fashioned 
mariners  would  not  know  what  to  do  under  the 
water.  Submarine  voyaging  is  an  entirely  dif 
ferent  profession  from  that  of  the  old-time  navi 
gator." 

"  I  know  all  that,"  said  Sammy.  "  I  know  how 
everything  is  a  machine  nowadays  ;  but  I  shall 
never  forget  what  a  glorious  thing  it  was  to  sail 
on  the  sea  with  the  wind  blowin'  and  the  water 
curlin'  beneath  your  keel.  I  lived  on  the  coast, 
and  used  to  go  out  whenever  I  had  a  chance, 
but  things  is  mightily  changed  nowadays.  Just 
think  of  that  yacht -race  in  England  the  other 
day — a  race  between  two  electric  yachts,  with  a 
couple  of  vessels  ploughin'  along  to  windward 
carryin'  between  'em  a  board  fence  thirty  feet 
high  to  keep  the  wind  off  the  yachts  and  give  'em 
both  smooth  water  and  equal  chance.  I  can't 
get  used  to  that  sort  of  thing,  and  I  tell  you,  sir, 
that  if  I  am  goin'  on  a  voyage  to  the  pole,  I  want 
to  have  a  sailor  along.  If  everything  goes  all 
right,  we  must  come  to  the  top  of  the  water 
some  time,  and  then  we  ought  to  have  at  least 
one  man  who  understands  surface  navigation." 

"  All  right,"  said  Clewe  ;  "  get  your  sailor." 

"  I've  got  my  eye  on  him  ;  he's  a  Cape  Cod 
man,  and  he's  not  so  very  old  either.  When  he 
was  a  boy  people  went  about  in  ships  with  sails, 


32  THE    GREAT   STONE    OF   SARDIS 

and  even  after  he  grew  up  Cap'n  Jim  was  a  great 
feller  to  manage  a  catboat ;  for  things  has  moved 
slower  on  the  Cape  than  in  many  parts  of  the 
country." 

So  Captain  Jim  Hubbell  was  engaged  as  sailor 
to  the  expedition  ;  and  when  he  came  on  to  Sar- 
dis  and  looked  over  the  Dipsey  he  expressed  a 
general  opinion  of  her  construction  and  capabil 
ities  which  indicated  a  disposition  on  his  part 
to  send  her,  and  all  others  fashioned  after  her 
plan,  to  depths  a  great  deal  lower  than  ever  had 
been  contemplated  by  their  inventors.  Still,  as 
he  wanted  very  much  to  go  to  the  pole  if  it  was 
possible  that  he  could  get  there,  and  as  the  wages 
offered  him  were  exceedingly  liberal,  Captain 
Jim  enlisted  in  the  party.  His  duties  were  to 
begin  when  the  Dipsey  floated  on  the  surface  of 
the  sea  like  a  common-sense  craft. 

A  day  or  two  before  the  expedition  was  ready 
to  start,  Roland  Clewe  was  very  much  surprised 
one  morning  by  a  visit  from  Sammy's  wife,  Mrs. 
Sarah  Block,  who  lost  no  time  in  informing  him 
that  she  had  made  up  her  mind  to  accompany 
her  husband  on  the  perilous  voyage  he  was  about 
to  make. 

"  You  !"  said  Clewe.  "  You  could  not  go  on 
such  an  expedition  as  that !" 

"  If  Sammy  goes,  I  go,"  said  Mrs.  Block.  "  If 
it  is  dangerous  for  me,  it  is  dangerous  for  him. 
I  have  been  tryin'  to  get  sense  enough  in  his 
head  to  make  him  stay  at  home,  but  I  can't  do 
it ;  so  I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  I  go  with 
him  or  he  don't  go.  We  have  travelled  together 
on  top  of  the  land,  and  we  have  travelled  together 


THE   MISSION   OF    SAMUEL   BLOCK  33 

on  top  of  the  water,  and  if  there's  to  be  travellin' 
under  the  water,  why  then  we  travel  together 
all  the  same.  If  Sammy  goes  polin',  I  go  polin*. 
I  think  he's  a  fool  to  do  it ;  but  if  he's  goin*  to 
be  a  fool,  I  am  goin'  to  be  a  fool.  And  as  for 
my  bein'  in  the  way,  you  needn't  think  of  that, 
Mr.  Clewe.  I  can  cook  for  the  livin',  I  can  take 
care  of  the  sick,  and  I  can  sew  up  the  dead  in 
shrouds." 

"  All  right,  Mrs.  Block,"  said  Clewe.  "  If  you 
insist  on  it,  and  Sammy  is  willing,  you  may  go  ; 
but  I  will  beg  of  you  not  to  say  anything  about 
the  third  class  of  good  offices  which  you  propose 
to  perform  for  the  party,  for  it  might  cast  a 
gloom  over  some  of  the  weaker-minded." 

"  Cast  a  gloom  !"  said  Mrs.  Block.  "  If  all  I 
hear  is  true,  there  will  be  a  general  gloom  over 
everything  that  will  be  like  havin'  a  black  pocket- 
handkercher  tied  over  your  head,  and  I  don't 
know  that  anything  I  could  say  would  make  that 
gloom  more  gloomier." 

When  Margaret  Raleigh  parted  with  Clewe  on 
the  deck  of  the  Go  Lightly,  the  large  electric  ves 
sel  which  was  to  tow  the  Dipsey  up  to  the  limits 
of  navigable  Northern  waters,  she  knew  he  must 
make  a  long  journey,  nearly  twice  as  far  as  the 
voyage  to  England,  before  she  could  hear  from 
him  ;  but  when  he  arrived  at  Cape  Tariff,  a  point 
far  up  on  the  northwestern  coast  of  Greenland, 
she  would  hear  from  him  ;  for  from  this  point 
there  was  telegraphic  communication  with  the 
rest  of  the  world.  There  was  a  little  station  there, 
established  by  some  commercial  companies,  and 
their  agent  was  a  telegraph-operator. 
3 


34  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 

The  passage  from  New  York  to  Cape  Tariff 
was  an  uneventful  one,  and  when  Clewe  disem 
barked  at  the  lonely  Greenland  station  he  was 
greeted  by  a  long  message  from  Mrs.  Raleigh, 
the  principal  import  of  which  was  that  on  no  ac 
count  must  he  allow  himself  to  be  persuaded  to 
go  on  the  submarine  voyage  of  the  Dipsey.  On 
his  part,  Clewe  had  no  desire  to  make  any  change 
in  his  plans.  During  all  the  long  voyage  north 
ward  his  heart  had  been  at  Sardis. 

The  Dipsey  was  a  comparatively  small  vessel, 
but  it  afforded  comfortable  accommodations  for 
a  dozen  or  more  people,  and  there  was  room  for 
all  the  stores  which  would  be  needed  for  a  year. 
She  was  furnished,  besides,  with  books  and  ev 
ery  useful  and  convenient  contrivance  which  had 
been  thought  desirable  for  her  peculiar  expedition. 

When  everything  was  ready,  Roland  Clewe 
took  leave  of  the  officers,  the  crew,  and  the  pas 
senger  on  board  the  Dipsey,  and  the  last  -  men 
tioned,  as  she  shook  hands  with  him,  shed  tears. 

"  It  seems  to  me  like  a  sort  of  a  congregational 
suicide,  Mr.  Clewe,"  said  she.  "And  it  can't  even 
be  said  that  all  the  members  are  doin'  it  of  their 
own  accord,  for  I  am  not.  If  Sammy  did  not  go,  I 
would  not,  but  if  he  does,  I  do,  and  there's  the  end  of 
that ;  and  I  suppose  it  won't  be  very  much  longer 
before  there's  the  end  of  all  of  us.  I  hope  you 
will  tell  Mrs.  Raleigh  that  I  sent  my  best  love  to 
her  with  my  last  words  ;  for  even  if  I  was  to  see 
her  again,  it  would  seem  to  me  like  beginning  all 
over  again,  and  this  would  be  the  end  of  this  part 
of  my  life  all  the  same.  What  I  hope  and  pray 
for  is  that  none  of  the  party  may  die  of  any  kind 


THE    MISSION    OF    SAMUEL    BLOCK  35 

of  a  disease  before  the  rest  all  go  to  their  end 
together  ;  for  remains  on  board  an  under-water 
vessel  is  somethin'  which  mighty  few  nerves 
would  be  able  to  stand." 

When  all  farewells  had  been  said,  Mr.  Clewe 
went  on  board  the  Go  Lightly,  on  the  deck  of 
which  were  her  officers  and  men  and  the  few  in 
habitants  of  the  station,  and  then  the  plate-glass 
hatchways  of  the  Dipsey  were  tightly  closed,  and 
she  began  to  sink,  until  she  entirely  disappeared 
below  the  surface  of  the  water,  leaving  above  her 
a  little  floating  glass  globe,  connected  with  her 
by  an  electric  wire. 

As  the  Dipsey  went  under  the  sea,  this  little 
globe  followed  her  on  the  surface,  and  the  Go 
Lightly  immediately  began  to  move  after  her. 
This  arrangement  had  been  made,  as  Clewe 
wished  to  follow  the  Dipsey  for  a  time,  in  order 
to  see  if  everything  was  working  properly  with 
her.  She  kept  on  a  straight  course,  flashing  a 
light  into  the  little  globe  every  now  and  then  ; 
and  finally,  after  meeting  some  floating  ice,  she 
shattered  the  globe  with  an  explosion,  which  was 
the  signal  agreed  upon  to  show  that  all  was  well, 
and  that  the  Dipsey  had  started  off  alone  on  the 
submarine  voyage  to  the  pole. 

Roland  Clewe  gazed  out  over  the  wide  stretch 
of  dark-green  waves  and  glistening  crests,  where 
nothing  could  be  seen  which  indicated  life  ex 
cept  a  distant,  wearily-flapping  sea  bird,  and  then, 
turning  his  back  upon  the  pole,  he  made  prepa 
rations  for  his  return  voyage  to  New  York,  at 
which  port  he  might  expect  to  receive  direct 
news  from  Sammy  Block  and  his  companions. 


CHAPTER    V 
UNDER     WATER 

WHEN  the  Dipsey,  the  little  submarine  vessel 
which  had  started  to  make  its  way  to  the  north 
pole  under  the  ice  of  the  arctic  regions,  had 
sunk  out  of  sight  under  the  waters,  it  carried  a 
very  quiet  and  earnestly  observant  party.  Every 
one  seemed  anxious  to  know  what  would  hap 
pen  next,  and  all  those  whose  duties  would  allow 
them  to  do  so  gathered  under  the  great  skylight 
in  the  upper  deck,  and  gazed  upward  at  the 
little  glass  bulb  on  the  surface  of  the  water, 
which  they  were  towing  by  means  of  an  electric 
wire  ;  and  every  time  a  light  was  flashed  into 
this  bulb  it  seemed  to  them  as  if  they  were  for 
an  instant  reunited  to  that  vast  open  world  out 
side  of  the  ocean.  When  at  last  the  glass  globe 
was  exploded,  as  a  signal  that  the  Dipsey  had  cut 
loose  from  all  ties  which  connected  her  with  the 
outer  world,  they  saw  through  the  water  above 
them  the  flash  and  the  sparks,  and  then  all  was 
darkness. 

The  interior  of  the  submarine  vessel  was  bright 
ly  lighted  by  electric  lamps,  and  therj5QjiLs_of  the 
people  inside  of  her  soon  began  to  brighten  under 
the  mfluence  of  their  work  and  the  interest  they 
took  in  their  novel  undertaking  ;  there  was,  how- 


UNDER    WATER  37 

ever,  one  exception — the  sotd  of  Mrs.  Block  did   t 
not  brighten. 

Mrs.  Sarah  Block  was  a  peculiar  person  ;  she 
was  her  husband's  second  wife,  and  was  about 
forty  years  of  age.  Her  family  were  country 
people,  farmers,  and  her  life  as  a  child  was  passed 
among  folk  as  old-fashioned  as  if  they  had  lived 
in  the  past  century,  and  had  brought  their  old- 
fashioned  ideas  with  them  into  this.  But  Sarah 
did  not  wish  to  be  old-fashioned.  She  sympa 
thized  with  the  social  movements  of  the  day; 
she  believed  in  inventions  and  progress ;  she 
went  to  school  and  studied  a  great  deal  which 
her  parents  never  heard  of,  and  which  she  very 
promptly  forgot.  When  she  grew  up  she  wore 
the  widest  hoop-skirts  ;  she  was  one  of  the  first 
to  use  an  electric  spinning-wheel ;  and  when  she 
took  charge  of  her  father's  house,  she  it  was  who 
banished  to  the  garret  the  old-fashioned  sewing- 
machine,  and  the  bicycles  on  which  some  of  the 
older  members  of  the  family  once  used  to  ride. 
She  tried  to  persuade  her  father  to  use  a  hot-air 
plough,  and  to  give  up  the  practice  of  keeping 
cows  in  an  age  when  milk  and  butter  were  con 
sidered  not  only  unnecessary,  but  injurious  to 
human  health.  When  she  married  Samuel  Block, 
then  a  man  of  forty-five,  she  really  thought  she 
did  so  because  he  was  a  person  of  progressive 
ideas,  but  the  truth  was  she  married  him  because 
he  loved  her,  and  because  he  did  it  in  an  honest, 
old-fashioned  way. 

In  her  inner  soul  Sarah  was  just  as  old-fash-  '' 
ioned  as  anybody — she  had  been  born  so,  and  she 
had  never  changed.     Endeavor  as  she  might  to 


38  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 

make  herself  believe  that  she  was  a  woman  of 
modern  thought  and  feeling,  her  s.pjyij[  was  truly 
in  sympathy  with  the  social  fashions  and  customs 
in  which  she  had  been  brought  up  ;  and  those  to 
which  she  was  trying  to  educate  herself  were  on 
the  outside  of  her,  never  a  part  of  her,  but  always 
the  objects  of  her  aspirations.  These  aspirations 
she  believed  to  be  principles.  She  tried  to  set 
her  .mind  upon  the  unfolding  revelations  of  the 
era,  as  young  women  in  her  grandfather's  day 
used  to  try  to  set  their  minds  upon  Browning. 
When  Sarah  told  Mr.  Clewe  that  she  was  going 
on  the  Dipsey  because  she  would  not  let  her  hus 
band  go  by  himself,  she  did  so  because  she  was 
ashamed  to  say  that  she  was  in  such  sympathy 
with  the  great  scientific  movements  of  the  day 
that  she  thought  it  was  her  duty  to  associate 
herself  with  one  of  them;  but  wKlfe  she  thought 
she  was  lying  in  the  line  of  high  principle,  she 
was  in  fact  expressing  the  truthful  affection  of 
her  old-fashioned  nature  —  a  nature  she  was  al 
ways  endeavoring  to  keep  out  of  sight,  but  which 
from  itsjiark  comer  ruled  her  life. 

She  had  an  old-fashioned  temper,  which  de 
lighted  in  censoriousness.  The  more  interest  she 
took  in  anything,  the  more  alive  was  she  to  its 
defects.  She  tried  to  be  a  good  member  of  her 
church,  but  she  said  sharp  things  of  the  congre 
gation. 

No  electrical  illumination  could  brighten  the 
_spul  of  Mrs.  Block.  She  moved  about  the  little 
vessel  with  a  clouded  countenance.  She  was  im 
pressed  with  the  feeling  that  something  was 
wrong,  even  now  at  the  beginning,  although  of 


UNDER    WATER  39 

course  she  could  not  be  expected  to  know  what 
it  was. 

At  the  bows,  and  in  various  places  at  the  sides 
of  the  vessel,  and  even  in  the  bottom,  were  large 
plates  of  heavy  glass,  through  which  the  inmates 
could  look  out  into  the  water,  and  there  streamed 
forward  into  the  quiet  depths  of  the  ocean  a  great 
path  of  light,  proceeding  from  a  powerful  search 
light  in  the  bow.  By  this  light  any  object  in  the 
water  could  be  seen  some  time  before  reaching 
it ;  but  to  guard  more  thoroughly  against  the 
most  dreaded  obstacle  they  feared  to  meet  — 
down-reaching  masses  of  ice  —  a  hydraulic  ther 
mometer,  mounted  on  a  little  submarine  vessel 
connected  with  the  Dipsey  by  wires,  preceded  her 
a  long  distance  ahead.  Impelled  and  guided  by 
the  batteries  of  the  larger  vessel,  this  little  ther 
mometer-boat  would  send  back 'instant  tidings  of 
any  changes  in  temperature  in  the  water  occa 
sioned  by  the  proximity  of  ice.  To  prevent  sink 
ing  too  deep,  a  heavy  lead,  on  which  were  several 
electric  buttons,  hung  far  below  the  Dipsey,  ready 
at  all  times,  day  or  night,  to  give  notice  if  she 
came  too  near  the  reefs  and  sands  of  the  bottom 
of  the  Arctic  Ocean. 

The  steward  had  just  announced  that  the  first 
meal  on  board  the  Dipsey  was  ready  for  the  offi 
cers'  mess,  when  Mrs.  Block  suddenly  rushed  into 
the  cabin. 

"  Look  here,  Sammy,"  she  exclaimed  ;  "  I  want 
you,  or  somebody  who  knows  more  than  you  do, 
to  tell  me  how  the  people  on  this  vessel  are  goin' 
to  get  air  to  breathe  with.  It  has  just  struck  me 
that  when  we  have  breathed  up  all  the  air  that's 


40  THE    GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

inside,  we  will  simply  suffocate,  just  as  if  we  were 
drowned  outside  a  boat  instead  of  inside  ;  and  for 
my  part  I  can't  see  any  difference,  except  in  one 
case  we  keep  dry  and  in  the  other  we  are  wet." 

"  More  than  that,  madam,"  said  Mr.  Gibbs,  the 
Master  Electrician,  who,  in  fact,  occupied  the 
rank  of  first  officer  of  the  vessel ;  "  if  we  are 
drowned  outside  in  the  open  water  we  shall  be 
food  for  fishes,  whereas  if  we  suffocate  inside  the 
vessel  we  shall  only  be  food  for  reflection,  if  any 
body  ever  finds  us." 

"  You  did  not  come  out  expectin'  that,  I  hope  ?" 
said  Mrs.  Block.  "  I  thought  something  would 
happen  when  we  started,  but  I  never  supposed 
we  would  run  short  of  air." 

"  Don't  bother  yourself  about  that,  Sarah,"  said 
Sammy.  "  We'll  have  all  the  air  we  want ;  of 
course  we  would  not  start  without  thinkin'  of 
that." 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Sarah.  "  It's  very  seldom 
that  men  start  off  anywhere  without  forgettin' 
somethin'." 

"  Let  us  take  our  seats,  Mrs.  Block,"  said  Mr. 
Gibbs,  "and  I  will  set  your  jmnd  at  rest  on  the 
air  point.  There  are  a  great  many  machines  and 
mechanical  arrangements  on  board  here  which  of 
course  you  don't  understand,  but  which  I  shall 
take  great  pleasure  in  explaining  to  you  when 
ever  you  want  to  learn  something  about  them. 
Among  them  are  two  great  metal  contrivances, 
outside  the  Dipsey  and  near  her  bows,  which 
open  into  the  water,  and  also  communicate  with 
the  inside  of  her  hull.  These  are  called  electric 
gills,  and  they  separate  air  from  the  water  around 


UNDER   WATER  41 

us  in  a  manner  somewhat  resembling  the  way  in 
which  a  fish's  gills  act.  They  continually  send  in 
air  enough  to  supply  us  not  only  with  all  we  need 
for  breathing,  but  with  enough  to  raise  us  to  the 
surface  of  the  water  whenever  we  choose  to  pro 
duce  it  in  sufficient  quantities." 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  it,"  said  Mrs.  Block,  "  and  I 
hope  the  machines  will  never  get  out  of  order. 
But  I  should  think  that  sort  of  air,  made  fresh 
from  the  water,  would  be  very  damp.  It's  very 
different  from  the  air  we  are  used  to,  which  is 
warmed  by  the  sun  and  properly  aired." 

"  Aired  air  seems  funny  to  me,"  remarked  Sam 
my. 

There  was  fascination,  not  at  all  surprising, 
about  the  great  glass  lights  in  the  Dipsey,  and 
whenever  a  man  was  off  duty  he  was  pretty  sure 
to  be  at  one  of  these  windows  if  he  could  get 
there.  At  first  Mrs.  Block  was  afraid  to  look  out 
of  any  of  them.  It  made  her  blood  creep,  she 
said,  to  stare  out  into  all  that  solemn  water.  For 
the  first  two  days,  when  she  could  get  no  one  to 
talk  to  her,  she  passed  most  of  her  time  sitting 
in  the  cabin,  holding  in  one  of  her  hands  a  dust- 
brush,  and  in  the  other  a  farmer's  almanac.  She 
did  not  use  the  brush,  nor  did  she  read  the  alma 
nac,  but  they  reminded  her  of  home  and  the 
world  which  was  real. 

But  when  she  did  make  up  her  mind  to  look 
out  of  the  windows,  she  became  greatly  inter 
ested,  especially  at  the  bow,  where  she  could  gaze 
out  into  the  water  illuminated  by  the  long  lane 
of  light  thrown  out  by  the  search-light.  Here 
she  continually  imagined  she  saw  things,  and 


42  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF    SARDIS 

sometimes  greatly  startled  the  men  on  lookout 
by  her  exclamations.  Once  she  thought  she  saw 
a  floating  corpse,  but  fortunately  it  was  Sammy 
who  was  by  her  when  she  proclaimed  her  discov 
ery,  and  he  did  not  believe  in  any  such  nonsense, 
suggesting  that  it  might  have  been  some  sort  of 
a  fish.  After  that  the  idea  of  fish  filled  the  mind 
of  Mrs.  Block,  and  she  set  herself  to  work  to" 
search  in  an  encyclopaedia  which  was  on  board 
for  descriptions  of  fishes  which  inhabited  the 
depths  of  the  arctic  seas.  To  meet  a  whale,  she 
thought,  would  be  very  bad,  but  then  a  whale 
is  clumsy  and  soft ;  a  sword  -  fish  was  what  she 
most  dreaded.  A  sword-fish  running  his  sword 
through  one  of  the  glass  windows,  and  perhaps 
coming  in  himself  along  with  the  water,  sent  a 
chill  down  her  back  every  time  she  thought 
about  it  and  talked  about  it. 

"You  needn't  be  afraid  of  sword-fishes,"  said 
Captain  Jim  Hubbell.  "They  don't  fancy  the 
cold  water  we  are  sailin'  in  ;  and  as  to  whales, 
don't  you  know,  madam,  there  ain't  no  more  of 
'em  ?" 

"  No  more  whales  !"  exclaimed  Sarah.  "  I  have 
heard  about  'em  all  my  life  !" 

"  Oh,  you  can  read  and  hear  about  'em  easy 
enough,"  replied  Captain  Jim,  "but  you  nor  no 
body  else  will  ever  see  none  of  'em  ag'in — at  least, 
in  this  part  of  the  world.  Sperm-whales  began 
gittin'  scarce  when  I  was  a  boy,  and  pretty  soon 
there  was  nothin'  left  but  bow -head  or  right 
whales,  that  tried  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of 
human  bein's  by  livin'  far  up  North  ;  but  when 
they  came  to  shootin'  'em  with  cannons  which 


UNDER    WATER  43 

would  carry  three  or  four  miles,  the  whale's  day 
was  up,  and  he  got  scarcer  and  scarcer,  until  he 
faded  out  altogether.  There  was  a  British  vessel, 
the  Barkright,  that  killed  two  bow-head  whales 
in  1935,  north  of  Melville  Island,  but  since  that 
time  there  hasn't  been  a  whale  seen  in  all  the 
arctic  waters.  I  have  heard  that  said  by  sailors, 
and  I  have  read  about  it.  They  have  all  been 
killed,  and  nothin'  left  of  'em  but  the  skeletons 
that's  in  the  museums." 

Mrs.  Block  shuddered.  "  It  would  be  terrible  to 
meet  a  livin'  one,  and  yet  it  is  an  awful  thought 
to  think  that  they  are  all  dead  and  gone,"  said 
she. 


CHAPTER  VI 

VOICES   FROM   THE    POLAR   SEAS 

ALTHOUGH  Sammy  Block  and  his  companions 
were  not  only  far  up  among  the  mysteries  of  the 
region  of  everlasting  ice,  and  were  sunk  out  of 
sight,  so  that  their  vessel  had  become  one  of 
these  mysteries,  it  was  still  perfectly  possible 
for  them  to  communicate,  by  means  of  the  tel 
egraphic  wire  which  was  continually  unrolling 
astern,  with  people  all  over  the  world.  But  this 
communication  was  a  matter  which  required 
great  judgment  and  caution,  and  it  had  been  a 
subject  of  very  careful  consideration  by  Roland 
Clewe. 

When  he  had  returned  to  Cape  Tariff,  after 
parting  with  the  Dipsey,  he  had  received  several 
messages  from  Sammy,  which  assured  him  that 
the  submarine  voyage  was  proceeding  satisfacto 
rily.  But  when  he  went  on  board  the  Go  Lightly 
and  started  homeward,  he  would  be  able  to  hear 
nothing  more  from  the  submarine  voyagers 
until  he  reached  St.  John's,  Newfoundland — the 
first  place  at  which  his  vessel  would  touch. 
Of  course  constant  communication  with  Sardis 
would  be  kept  up,  but  this  communication  might 
be  the  source  of  great  danger  to  the  plans  of 
Roland  Clewe.  Whatever  messages  of  impor- 


VOICES   FROM   THE    POLAR    SEAS  4$ 

tance  came  from  the  depths  of  the  arctic  regions 
he  wished  to  come  only  to  him  or  to  Mrs.  Ra 
leigh.  He  had  contrived  a  telegraphic  cipher, 
known  only  to  Mrs.  Raleigh,  Sammy,  and  two 
officers  of  the  Dipsey,  and,  to  insure  secrecy,  Sam 
my  had  been  strictly  enjoined  to  send  no  infor 
mation  in  any  other  way  than  in  this  cipher. 

For  years  there  had  been  men,  both  in  America 
and  in  Europe,  who  had  been  watching  with  jeal 
ous  scrutiny  the  inventions  and  researches  of 
Roland  Clewe,  and  he  well  understood  that  if 
they  should  discover  his  processes  and  plans  be 
fore  they  were  brought  to  successful  completion 
he  must  expect  to  be  robbed  of  many  of  the  re 
sults  of  his  labors.  The  first  news  that  came  to 
him  on  his  recent  return  to  America  had  been 
the  tale  told  by  Sammy  Block,  of  the  man  in  the 
air  who  had  been  endeavoring  to  peer  down  into 
his  lens-house,  and  he  had  heard  of  other  attempts 
of  this  kind.  Therefore  it  was  that  the  tele 
graphic  instrument  on  the  Dipsey  had  been  given 
into  the  sole  charge  of  Samuel  Block,  who  had 
become  a  very  capable  operator,  and  who  could 
be  relied  upon  to  send  no  news  over  his  wire 
which  could  give  serviceable  information  to  the 
operators  along  the  line  from  Cape  Tariff  to 
Sardis,  New  Jersey. 

But  Clewe  did  not  in  the  least  desire  that  Mar 
garet  Raleigh  should  be  kept  waiting  until  he 
came  back  from  the  arctic  regions  for  news  from 
the  expedition,  which  she  as  well  as  himself  had 
sent  out  into  the  unknown  North.  Consequently 
Samuel  Block  had  been  told  that  he  might  com 
municate  with  Mrs.  Raleigh  as  soon  and  as  often 


46  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 

as  he  pleased,  remembering  always  to  be  careful 
never  to  send  any  word  which  might  reveal  any 
thing  to  the  detriment  of  his  employers.  When 
a  message  should  be  received  on  board  the  Dipsey 
that  Mr.  Clewe  was  ready  to  communicate  with 
her,  frequent  reports  were  expected  from  the 
Master  Electrician,  but  it  would  be  Sammy  who 
would  unlock  the  cover  which  had  been  placed 
over  the  instrument. 

Before  he  retired  to  his  bunk  on  the  first  night 
on  board  the  Dipsey^  Sammy  thought  it  proper 
to  send  a  message  to  Mrs.  Raleigh.  He  had  not 
telegraphed  before  because  he  knew  that  Mr. 
Clewe  would  communicate  fully  before  he  left 
Cape  Tariff. 

Margaret  Raleigh  had  gone  to  bed  late,  and 
had  been  lying  for  an  hour  or  two  unable  to  sleep, 
so  busy  was  herjnind  with  the  wonderful  things 
which  were  happening  in  the  far-away  polar  re 
gions — strange  and  awful  things — in  which  she 
had  such  a  direct  and  lively  interest.  She  had 
heard,  from  Roland  Clewe,  of  the  successful  be 
ginning  of  the  Dipsey 's  voyage,  and  before  she 
had  gone  to  her  chamber  she  had  received  a  last 
message  from  him  on  leaving  Cape  Tariff  ;  and 
now,  as  she  lay  there  in  her  bed,  her  whole  soul 
was  occupied  with  thoughts  of  that  little  party 
of  people — some  of  them  so  well  known  to  her — 
all  of  them  sent  out  upon  this  perilous  and  fright 
ful  expedition  by  her  consent  and  assistance,  and 
now  left  alone  to  work  their  way  through  the 
dread  and  silent  waters  that  underlie  the  awful 
ice  regions  of  the  pole.  She  felt  that  so  long  as 
she  had  a  mind  she  could  not  help  thinking  of 


VOICES   FROM   THE    POLAR   SEAS  47 

them,  and  so  long  as  she  thought  of  them  she 
could  not  sleep. 

Suddenly  there  was  a  ring  at  the  door,  which 
made  her  start  and  spring  from  her  bed,  and 
shortly  a  telegraphic  message  was  brought  to  her 
by  a  maid.  It  was  from  the  depths  of  the  Arctic 
Ocean,  and  read  as  follows  : 

' '  Getting  on  very  well.  No  motion.  Not  cold.  Slight 
rheumatism  in  Sarah's  shoulder.  Wants  to  know  which  side  of 
plasters  you  gave  her  goes  next  skin. 

"SAMUEL  BLOCK." 

An  hour  afterwards  there  flashed  farther  north 
ward  than  ever  current  from  a  battery  had  gone 
before  an  earnest,  cordial,  almost  affectionate  mes 
sage  from  Margaret  Raleigh  to  Sarah  Block,  and 
it  concluded  with  the  information  that  it  was 
the  rough  side  of  the  plasters  which  should  go 
next  to  the  skin.  After  that  Mrs.  Raleigh  went 
to  bed  with  a  peaceful  mind  and  slept  soundly. 

Frequent  communications,  always  of  a  friend 
ly  or  domestic  nature,  passed  between  the  polar 
sea  and  Sardis  during  the  next  few  days.  Mrs. 
Raleigh  would  have  telegraphed  a  good  deal  more 
than  she  did  had  it  not  been  for  the  great  ex 
pense  from  Sardis  to  Cape  Tariff,  and  Sarah  Block 
was  held  in  restraint,  not  by  pecuniary  consider 
ations,  but  by  Sammy's  sense  of  the  fitness  of 
things.  He  nearly  always  edited  her  messages, 
even  when  he  consented  to  send  them.  One 
communication  he  positively  refused  to  transmit. 
She  came  to  him  in  a  great  flurry. 

"  Sammy,"  said  she,  "  I  have  just  found  out 
something,  and  I  can't  rest  until  I  have  told 


48  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF   SARDIS 

Mrs.  Raleigh.  I  won't  mention  it  here,  because  it 
might  frighten  some  people  into  fits  and  spasms. 
Sammy,  do  you  know  there  are  thirteen  people  on 
board  this  boat  ?" 

"  Sarah  Block  !"  ejaculated  her  husband,  "  what 
in  the  name  of  common -sense  are  you  talkin' 
about?  What  earthly  difference  can  it  make 
whether  there  are  thirteen  people  on  this  vessel 
or  twelve?  And  if  it  did  make  any  difference, 
what  are  you  goin'  to  do  about  it?  Do  you  ex 
pect  anybody  to  get  out  ?" 

"  Of  course  I  don't,"  replied  Sarah  ;  "  although 
there  are  some  of  them  that  would  not  have  come 
in  if  I  had  had  my  say  about  it ;  but  as  Mrs.  Ra 
leigh  is  one  of  the  owners,  and  such  a  good  friend 
to  you  and  me,  Sammy,  it  is  our  duty  to  let  her 
know  what  dreadful  bad  luck  we  are  carryin'  with 
us." 

"  Don't  you  suppose  she  knows  how  many  peo 
ple  are  aboard  ?"  said  Sammy. 

"  Of  course  she  knows ;  but  she  don't  consider 
what  it  means,  or  we  wouldn't  all  have  been  here. 
It  is  her  right  to  know,  Sammy.  Perhaps  she 
might  order  us  to  go  back  to  Cape  Tariff  and  put 
somebody  ashore." 

In  his  heart  Samuel  Block  believed  that  if  this 
course  were  adopted  he  was  pretty  sure  who  would 
be  put  on  shore,  if  a  vote  were  taken  by  officers 
and  crew  ;  but  he  was  too  wise  to  say  anything 
upon  this  point,  and  contented  himself  with  posi 
tively  refusing  to  send  southward  any  news  of  the 
evil  omen. 

The  next  day  Mrs.  Block  felt  that  she  must 
speak  upon  the  subject  or  perish,  and  she  asked 


VOICES   FROM   THE    POLAR    SEAS  49 

Mr.  Gibbs  what  he  thought  of  there  being  thir 
teen  people  on  board. 

"Madam,"  said  he,  "these  signs  lose  all  their 
powers  above  the  seventieth  parallel  of  latitude. 
In  fact,  none  of  them  have  ever  been  known  to 
come  true  above  sixty -eight  degrees  and  forty 
minutes,  and  we  are  a  good  deal  higher  than 
that,  you  know." 

Sarah  made  no  answer,  but  she  told  her  hus 
band  afterwards  that  she  thought  that  Mr.  Gibbs 
had  his  mind  so  full  of  electricity  that  it  had  no 
room  for  old  -  fashioned  common  -  sense.  It  did 
not  do  to  sneer  at  signs  and  portents.  Among 
the  earliest  things  she  remembered  was  a  story 
which  had  been  told  her  of  her  grandmother's 
brother,  who  was  the  thirteenth  passenger  in  an 
omnibus  when  he  was  a  young  man,  and  who 
died  that  very  night,  having  slipped  off  the  back 
step,  where  he  was  obliged  to  stand,  and  fract 
ured  his  skull. 

At  last  there  came  a  day  when  a  message  in 
cipher  from  Roland  Clewe  delivered  itself  on 
board  the  Dipsey,  and  from  that  moment  a  hith 
erto  unknown  sense  of  security  seemed  to  per 
vade  the  minds  of  officers  and  crew.  To  be  sure, 
there  was~nb  good  reason  for  this,  for  if  disaster 
should  overtake  them,  or  even  threaten  them, 
there  was  no  submarine  boat  ready  to  send  to 
their  rescue  ;  and  if  there  had  been,  it  would  be 
long,  long  before  such  aid  could  reach  them  ; 
but  still,  they  were  comforted,  encouraged,  and 
cheered.  Now,  if  anything  happened,  they  could 
send  news  of  it  to  the  man  in  whom  they  all 
trusted,  and  through  him  to  their  homes,  and 
4 


50  THE    GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

whatever  their  far-away  friends  had  to  say  to 
them  could  be  said  without  reserve. 

There  was  nothing  yet  of  definite  scientific  im 
portance  to  report,  but  the  messages  of  the  Master 
Electrician  were  frequent  and  long,  regardless  of 
expense,  and,  so  far  as  her  husband  would  permit 
her,  Sarah  Block  informed  Mrs.  Raleigh  of  the 
discouragements  and  dangers  which  awaited  this 
expedition.  It  must  be  said,  however,  that  Mrs. 
Block  never  proposed  to  send  back  one  word 
which  should  indicate  that  she  was  in  favor  of 
the  abandonment  of  the  expedition,  or  of  her  re 
tirement  from  it  should  opportunity  allow.  She 
had  set  out  for  the  north  pole  because  Sammy  was 
going  there,  and  the  longer  she  went  "polin"' 
with  him,  the  stronger  became  her  curiosity  to 
see  the  pole  and  to  know  what  it  looked  like. 

The  Dipsey  was  not  expected  to  be,  under  any 
circumstances,  a  swift  vessel,  and  now,  retarded 
by  her  outside  attachments,  she  moved  but  slowly 
under  the  waters.  The  telegraphic  wire  which 
she  laid  as  she  proceeded  was  the  thinnest  and 
lightest  submarine  cable  ever  manufactured,  but 
the  mass  of  it  was  of  great  weight,  and  as  it  found 
its  way  to  the  bottom  it  much  retarded  the  prog 
ress  of  the  vessel,  which  moved  more  slowly  than 
was  absolutely  necessary,  for  fear  of  breaking  this 
connection  with  the  living  world. 

Onward,  but  a  few  knots  an  hour,  the  Dipsey 
moved  like  a  fish  in  the  midst  of  the  sea.  The 
projectors  of  the  enterprise  had  a  firm  belief  that 
there  was  a  channel  from  Baffin's  Bay  into  an 
open  polar  sea,  which  would  be  navigable  if  its 
entrance  were  not  blocked  up  by  ice,  and  on  this 


VOICES   FROM   THE    POLAR   SEAS  51 

belief  were  based  all  their  hopes  of  success.  So 
the  explorers  pressed  steadily  onward,  always  with 
an  anxious  lookout  above  them  for  fear  of  strik 
ing  the  overhanging  ice,  always  with  an  anxious 
lookout  below  for  fear  of  dangers  which  might 
loom  up  from  the  bottom,  always  with  an  anxious 
lookout  starboard  for  fear  of  running  against  the 
foundations  of  Greenland,  always  with  an  anxious 
lookout  to  port  for  fear  of  striking  the  ground 
work  of  the  unknown  land  to  the  west,  and  al 
ways  keeping  a  lookout  in  every  direction  for 
whatever  revelation  these  unknown  waters  might 
choose  to  make  to  them. 

Captain  Jim  Hubbell  had  no  sympathy  with 
the  methods  of  navigation  practised  on  board  the 
Dipsey.  So  long  as  he  could  not  go  out  on  deck 
and  take  his  noon  observations,  he  did  not  be 
lieve  it  would  be  possible  for  him  to  know  exactly 
where  his  vessel  was  ;  but  he  accepted  the  situa 
tion,  and  objected  to  none  of  the  methods  of  the 
scientific  navigators. 

"  It's  a  mighty  simple  way  of  sailin',''  he  said  to 
Sammy.  "  As  long  as  there's  water  to  sail  in,  you 
have  just  got  to  git  on  a  line  of  longitude  —  it 
doesn't  matter  what  line,  so  long  as  there's  water 
ahead  of  you  —  and  keep  there;  and  so  long  as 
you  steer  due  north,  always  takin'  care  not  to 
switch  off  to  the  magnetic  pole,  of  course  you  will 
keep  there  ;  and  as  all  lines  of  longitude  come  to 
the  same  point  at  last,  and  as  that's  the  point  you 
are  sailin'  for,  of  course,  if  you  can  keep  on  that 
line  of  longitude  as  long  as  it  lasts,  it  follows  that 
you  are  bound  to  git  there.  If  you  come  to  any 
place  on  this  line  of  longitude  where  there's  not 


52  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

enough  water  to  sail  her,  you  have  got  to  stop  her; 
and  then,  if  you  can't  see  any  way  of  goin'  ahead 
on  another  line  of  longitude,  you  can  put  her 
about  and  go  out  of  this  on  the  same  line  of  longi 
tude  that  you  came  up  into  it  on,  and  so  you  may 
expect  to  find  a  way  clear.  It's  mighty  simple 
sailin'  —  reg'lar  spellin'-book  navigation  —  but  it 
isn't  the  right  thing." 

"  It  seems  that  way,  Cap'n  Jim,"  said  Sammy, 
"and  I  expect  there's  a  long  stretch  of  under 
water  business  ahead  of  us  yet,  but  still  we  can't 
tell.  How  do  we  know  that  we  will  not  get  up 
some  mornin'  soon  and  look  out  of  the  upper  sky 
light  and  see  nothin'  but  water  over  us  and  day 
light  beyond  that  ?" 

"  When  we  do  that,  Sammy,"  said  Captain  Jim, 
"  then  I'll  truly  believe  I'm  on  a  v'yage  !" 


CHAPTER  VII 
GOOD   NEWS  GOES   FROM   SARDIS 

WHEN  Roland  Clewe,  after  a  voyage  from  Cape 
Tariff  which  would  have  been  tedious  to  him  no 
matter  how  short  it  had  been,  arrived  at  Sardis, 
his  mind  was  mainly  occupied  with  the  people  he 
had  left  behind  him  engulfed  in  the  arctic  seas, 
but  this  important  subject  did  not  prevent  him 
from  also  giving  attention  to  the  other  great  ob 
ject  upon  which  his  souljvas  bent.  At  St.  John's, 
and  at  various  points  on  his  journey  from  there, 
he  had  received  messages  from  the  Dipsey,  so  that 
he  knew  that  so  far  all  was  well,  and  when  he 
met  Mrs.  Raleigh  she  had  much  to  tell  him  of 
what  might  have  been  called  the  domestic  affairs 
of  the  little  vessel. 

But  while  keeping  himself  in  touch,  as  it  were, 
with  the  polar  regions,  Roland  Clewe  longed  to 
use  the  means  he  believed  he  possessed  of  peer 
ing  into  the  subterranean  mysteries  of  the  earth 
beneath  him.  Work  on  the  great  machine  by 
which  he  would  generate  his  Artesian  ray  had 
been  going  on  very  satisfactorily,  and  there  was 
every  reason  to  believe  that  he  would  soon  be 
able  to  put  it  into  operation. 

He  had  found  Margaret  Raleigh  a  different 
woman  from  what  she  had  been  when  he  left  her. 


54  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

The  absence  had  been  short,  but  the  change  in 
her  was  very  perceptible.  She  was  quieter  ;  she 
was  more  intent.  She  had  always  taken  a  great 
interest  in  his  undertakings,  but  now  that  inter 
est  not  only  seemed  to  be  deepened,  but  it  was 
clouded  by  a  certain  anxiety.  She  had  been  an 
ardent,  cheerful,  and  hopeful  co  -  worker  with 
him,  so  far  as  she  was  able  to  do  so  ;  but  now, 
although  she  was  quite  as  ardent,  the  cheerful 
ness  had  disappeared,  and  she  did  not  allude  to 
the  hopefulness. 

But  this  did  not  surprise  Clewe  ;  he  thought  it 
the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  ;  for  that 
polar  expedition  was  enough  to  cloud  the  ^spirits 
of  any  woman  who  had  an  active  part  and  share 
in  it,  and  who  was  bound  to  feel  that  much  of 
the  responsibility  of  it  rested  upon  her.  At  times 
this  responsibility  rested  very  heavily  upon  him 
self.  But  if  thoughts  of  that  little  submerged 
party  at  the  desolate  end  of  the  world  came  to 
him  as  he  sat  in  his  comfortable  chair,  and  a  cold 
dread  shot  through  him,  as  it  was  apt  to  do  at 
such  times,  he  would  hurriedly  step  to  his  tele 
graphic  instrument,  and  when  he  had  heard  from 
Sammy  Block  that  all  was  well  with  them,  his 
spiritsjvould  rise  again,  and  he  would  go  on  with 
his  work  with  a  soul  cheered  and  encouraged. 

But  good  news  from  the  North  did  not  appear 
to  cheer  and  encourage  the^oul  of  Mrs.  Raleigh. 
She  seemed  anxious  and  troubled  even  after  she 
had  heard  it. 

"  Mr.  Clewe,"  said  she,  when  he  had  called  upon 
her  the  next  morning  after  his  return,  "suppose 
you  were  to  hear  bad  news  from  the  Dipsey,  or 


GOOD   NEWS   GOES   FROM   SARDIS  55 

were  to  hear  nothing  at  all — were  to  get  no  an 
swer  to  your  messages — what  would  you  do  ?" 

His  face  grew  troubled. 

"  That  is  a  terrible  question,"  he  said.  "  It  is 
one  I  have  often  asked  myself ;  but  there  is  no 
satisfactory  answer  to  it.  Of  course,  as  I  have 
told  myself  and  have  told  you,  there  seems  no 
reason  to  expect  a  disaster.  There  are  no 
storms  in  the  quiet  depths  in  which  the  Dipsey 
is  sailing.  Ice  does  not  sink  down  from  the  sur 
face,  and  even  if  a  floating  iceberg  should  turn 
over,  as  they  sometimes  do  in  the  more  open  sea, 
the  Dipsey  will  keep  low  enough  to  avoid  such 
danger.  In  fact,  I  feel  almost  sure  that  if  she 
should  meet  with  any  obstacle  which  would  pre 
vent  her  from  keeping  on  her  course  to  the  pole, 
all  she  would  have  to  do  would  be  to  turn  around 
and  come  back.  As  to  the  possibility  of  receiv 
ing  no  messages,  I  should  conclude  in  that  case 
that  the  wire  had  broken,  and  should  wait  a 
few  days  before  allowing  myself  to  be  seriously 
alarmed.  We  have  provided  against  such  an  ac 
cident.  The  Dipsey  is  equipped  as  a  cable-laying 
vessel,  and  if  her  broken  wire  is  not  at  too  great 
a  depth,  she  could  recover  it ;  but  I  have  given 
orders  that  should  such  an  accident  occur,  and 
they  cannot  re  -  establish  communication,  they 
must  return." 

"  Where  to  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Raleigh. 

"  To  Cape  Tariff,  of  course.  The  Dipsey  can 
not  navigate  the  surface  of  the  ocean  for  any 
considerable  distance." 

"  And  then  ?"  she  asked. 

"  I  would  go  as  quickly  as  possible  to  St.  John's, 


56  THE    GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

where  I  have  arranged  that  a  vessel  shall  be  ready 
for  me,  and  I  would  meet  the  party  at  Cape  Tar 
iff,  and  there  plan  for  a  resumption  of  the  enter 
prise,  or  bring  them  home.  If  they  should  not  be 
able  to  get  back  to  Cape  Tariff,  then  all  is  blank 
before  me.  We  must  not  think  of  it." 

"  But  you  will  go  up  there  all  the  same  ?"  she 
said. 

"Oh  yes,  I  will  go  there." 

Mrs.  Raleigh  made  no  answer,  but  sat  looking 
upon  the  floor. 

"  But  why  should  we  trouble  ourselves  with 
these  fears  ?"  continued  Clewe.  "  We  have  con 
sidered  all  probable  dangers  and  have  provided 
against  them,  and  at  this  moment  everything  is 
going  on  admirably,  and  there  is  every  reason 
why  we  should  feel  hopeful  and  encouraged.  I 
am  sorry  to  see  you  look  so  anxious  and  down 
cast." 

"  Mr.  Clewe,"  said  she, "  I  have  many  anxieties  ; 
that  is  natural,  and  I  cannot  help  it,  but  there  is 
only  one  fear  which  seriously  affects  me." 

"And  that  makes  you  pale,"  said  Clewe.  "Are 
you  afraid  that  if  I  begin  work  with  the  Artesian 
ray  I  shall  become  so  interested  in  it  that  I  shall 
forget  our  friends  up  there  in  the  North  ?  There 
is  no  danger.  No  matter  what  I  might  be  doing 
with  the  ray,  I  can  disconnect  the  batteries  in  an 
instant,  lock  up  the  lens-house,  and  in  the  next 
half  -  hour  start  for  St.  John's.  Then  I  will  go 
North  if  there  is  anything  needed  to  be  done 
there  which  human  beings  can  do." 

She  looked  at  him  steadfastly. 

"  That  is  what  I  am  afraid  of,"  she  said. 


GOOD   NEWS   GOES   FROM   SARDIS  57 

Roland  Clewe  did  not  immediately  speak.  To 
him  Margaret  Raleigh  was  two  persons.  She  was 
a  woman  of  business,  earnest,  thoughtful,  help 
ful,  generous,  and  wise  ;  a  woman  with  whom  he 
worked,  consulted,  planned,  who  made  it  possible 
for  him  to  carry  on  the  researches  and  enter 
prises  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life.  But, 
more  than  this,  she  was  another  being ;  she  was 
a  woman  he  loved,  with  a  warm,  passionate  love, 
which  grew  day  by  day,  and  which  a  year  ago  had 
threatened  to  break  down  every  barrier  of  pru 
dence,  and  throw  him  upon  his  knees  before  her 
as  a  humiliated  creature  who  had  been  pretend 
ing  to  love  knowledge,  philosophy,  and  science, 
but  in  reality  had  been  loving  beauty  and  riches. 
It  was  the  fear  of  this  catastrophe  which  had  had 
a  strong  influence  in  taking  him  to  Europe. 

But  now,  by  some  magical  influence — an  influ 
ence  which  he  was  not  sure  he  understood — that 
first  woman,  the  woman  of  business,  his  partner, 
his  co-worker,  had  disappeared,  and  there  sat 
before  him  the  woman  he  loved.  He  felt  in  his 
soul  that  if  he  tried  to  banish  her  it  would  be  im 
possible  ;  by  no  word  or  act  could  he  at  this  mo 
ment  bring  back  the  other. 

"  Margaret  Raleigh,"  he  said,  suddenly,  "  you 
have  thrown  me  from  my  balance.  You  may  not 
believe  it,  you  may  not  be  able  to  imagine  the 
possibility  of  it,  but  a  ^pirit,  a  fiery  spirit  which 
I  have  long  kept  bound  up  within  me,  has  burst 
its  bonds  and  has  taken  possession  of  me.  It 
may  be  a  devil  or  it  may  be  an  angel,  but  it 
holds  me  and  rules  me,  and  it  was  seT  loose  by 
the  words  you  have  just  spoken.  It  is  my  love 


58  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF   SARDIS 

for  you,  Margaret  Raleigh  !"  He  went  on,  speak 
ing  rapidly.  "  Now  tell  me,"  said  he.  "  I  have 
often  come  to  you  for  advice  and  help  —  give  it 
to  me  now.  In  laboratory,  workshop,  office,  with 
you  and  away  from  you,  abroad  and  at  home,  by 
day  and  by  night,  always  and  everywhere  I  have 
loved  you,  longed  for  a  sight  of  you,  for  a  word 
from  you,  even  if  it  had  been  a  word  about  a  stick 
or  a  pin.  And  always  and  everywhere  I  have  de 
termined  to  be  true  to  myself,  true  to  you,  true 
to  every  principle  of  honor  and  common  -  sense, 
and  to  say  nothing  to  you  of  love  until  by  some 
success  I  have  achieved  the  right  to  do  so.  By 
words  which  made  me  fancy  that  you  showed  a 
personal  interest  in  me,  you  have  banished  all 
those  resolutions  ;  you  have —  But  I  am  getting 
madder  and  madder.  Shall  I  leave  this  room? 
Shall  I  swear  never  to  speak — " 

She  looked  up  at  him.  The  ashiness  had  gone 
out  of  her  face.  Her  eyes  were  bright,  and  as 
she  lifted  them  towards  him  a  golden  softness 
and  mistiness  came  into  the  centre  of  each  of 
them,  as  though  he  might  look  down  through 
them  into  her  soul. 

"  If  I  were  youT^  said  she,  "  I  would  stay  here 
and  say  whatever  else  you  have  to  say." 

He  told  her  what  more  he  had  to  say,  but  it 
was  with  his  arms  around  her  and  his  eyes  close 
to  hers. 

"  Do  you  know,"  she  said,  a  little  afterwards, 
"that  for  years,  while  you  have  been  longing  to 
get  to  the  pole,  to  see  down  into  the  earth,  and 
to  accomplish  all  the  other  wonderful  things  that 
you  are  working  at  in  your  shops,  I  too  have 


GOOD   NEWS   GOES   FROM    SARDIS  59 

been  longing  to  do  something  —  longing  hun 
dreds  and  hundreds  of  times  when  we  were  talk 
ing  about  batteries  and  lenses  and  of  the  enter 
prises  we  have  had  on  hand." 

"  And  what  was  that  ?"  he  asked. 

"  It  was  to  push  back  this  lock  of  hair  from 
your  forehead.  There,  now  ;  you  don't  know 
how  much  better  you  look !" 

Before  Clewe  left  the  house  it  was  decided  that 
if  in  any  case  it  should  become  necessary  for  him 
to  start  for  the  polar  regions  these  two  were  to 
be  married  with  all  possible  promptness,  and  they 
were  to  go  to  the  North  together. 

That  afternoon  the  happy  couple  met  again 
and  composed  a  message  to  the  arctic  seas.  It 
was  not  deemed  necessary  yet  to  announce  to  so 
ciety  what  had  happened,  but  they  both  felt  that 
their  friends  who  were  so  far  away,  so  complete 
ly  shut  out  from  all  relations  with  the  world,  and 
yet  so  intimately  connected  with  them,  should 
know  that  Margaret  Raleigh  and  Roland  Clewe 
were  engaged  to  be  married. 

Roland  sent  the  message  that  evening  from 
his  office.  He  waited  an  unusually  long  time  for 
a  reply,  but  at  last  it  came,  from  Sammy.  The 
cipher,  when  translated,  ran  as  follows  : 

' '  Everybody  as  glad  as  they  can  be.  Specially  Sarah.  Will 
send  regular  congratulations.  Private  message  soon  from  me. 
We  have  got  the  devil  on  board." 

Clewe  was  astonished.  Samuel  Block  was  such 
a  quiet,  steady  person,  so  unused  to  extravagance 
or  excitement,  that  this  sensational  message  was 
entirely  beyond  his  comprehension.  He  could 


60  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 

fix  no  possible  meaning  to  it,  and  he  was  glad 
that  it  did  not  come  when  he  was  in  company 
with  Margaret.  It  was  too  late  to  disturb  her 
now,  and  he  most  earnestly  hoped  that  an  ex 
planation  would  come  before  he  saw  her  again. 

That  night  he  dreamed  that  there  was  a  great 
opening  near  the  pole,  which  was  the  approach 
to  the  lower  regions,  and  that  the  Dipsey  had 
been  boarded  by  a  diabolical  passenger,  who  had 
come  to  examine  her  papers  and  inquire  into  the 
health  of  her  passengers  and  crew. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    DEVIL   ON   THE   DIPSEY 

AFTER  a  troubled  night,  Roland  Clewe  rose 
early.  He  had  made  up  his  mind  that  what 
Sammy  had  to  communicate  was  something  of  a 
secret,  otherwise  it  would  have  been  telegraphed 
at  once.  For  this  reason  he  had  not  sent  him  a 
message  asking  for  immediate  and  full  particu 
lars,  but  had  waited.  Now,  however,  he  felt  he 
could  wait  no  longer  ;  he  must  know  something 
definite  before  he  saw  Margaret.  Not  to  excite 
suspicion  by  telegraphing  at  untimely  hours,  he 
had  waited  until  morning,  and  as  the  Dipsey  was 
in  about  the  same  longitude  as  Sardis,  and  as 
they  kept  regular  hours  on  board,  without  regard 
to  the  day  and  night  of  the  arctic  regions,  he 
knew  that  he  would  not  now  be  likely  to  rouse 
anybody  from  his  slumbers  by  "  calling  up  "  the 
pole. 

Although  the  telephone  had  been  brought  to 
such  wonderful  perfection  in  these  days,  Roland 
Clewe  had  never  thought  of  using  it  for  purposes 
of  communication  with  the  Dipsey.  The  necessary 
wire  would  have  been  too  heavy,  and  his  messages 
could  not  have  been  kept  secret.  In  fact,  this 
telegraphic  communication  between  Sardis  and 
the  submarine  vessel  was  almost  as  primitive  as 


62  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

that  in  use  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

But  Clewe  had  scarcely  entered  the  office  when 
he  was  surprised  by  the  sound  of  the  instrument, 
and  he  soon  found  that  Sammy  was  calling  to 
him  from  the  polar  seas.  He  sat  down  instantly 
and  received  this  message  : 

"  Could  not  send  more  last  night.  Gibbs  came  in.  Did  not 
want  him  to  know  until  I  had  heard  from  you.  That  Pole, 
Rovinski,  is  on  board.  Never  knew  it  until  yesterday.  Had 
shaved  off  his  beard  and  had  his  head  cropped.  He  let  it  grow, 
and  I  spotted  him.  There  is  no  mistake.  I  know  him,  but  he 
has  not  found  it  out.  He  is  on  board  to  get  ahead  of  you  some 
way  or  other — perhaps  get  up  a  mutiny  and  go  to  the  pole  him 
self.  He  is  the  wickedest-looking  man  I  ever  saw,  and  he  scared 
me  when  I  first  recognized  him.  Will  send  news  as  long  as  I 
am  on  hand.  Let  me  know  what  you  think.  I  want  to  chuck 
him  into  the  scuttle-box. 

"SAMUEL  BLOCK." 

"  If  that  could  be  done,"  said  Clewe  to  himself, 
"  it  would  be  an  end  to  a  great  many  troubles." 

The  scuttle-box  on  the  submarine  vessel  was  a 
contrivance  for  throwing  things  overboard.  It 
consisted  of  a  steel  box  about  six  feet  long  and 
two  feet  square  at  the  ends,  and  with  a  tightly 
fitting  door  at  each  extremity.  When  this  scut 
tle-box  was  used  it  was  run  down  through  a  square 
opening  in  the  bottom  of  the  Dipsey,  the  upper 
door  was  opened,  matter  to  be  disposed  of  was 
thrown  into  it,  the  upper  door  was  shut  and  the 
lower  one  opened,  whereupon  everything  inside 
of  it  descended  into  the  sea,  and  water  filled  the 
box.  When  this  box  was  drawn  up  by  means  of 
its  machinery,  the  water  was  forced  out,  so  that 


THE    DEVIL    ON    THE    DIPSEY  63 

when  it  was  entirely  inside  the  vessel  it  was  emp 
ty,  and  then  the  lower  door  was  closed.  For  some 
moments  the  idea  suggested  by  Sammy  was 
very  attractive  to  Clewe,  and  he  could  not  help 
thinking  that  the  occasion  might  arise  when  it 
would  be  perfectly  proper  to  carry  it  into  execu 
tion. 

Now  that  he  knew  the  import  of  Sammy's  ex 
traordinary  communication,  he  felt  that  it  would 
not  be  right  to  withhold  his  knowledge  from  Mar 
garet.  Of  course  it  might  frighten  her  very 
much,  but  this  was  an  enterprise  in  which  people 
should  expect  to  be  frightened.  Full  confidence 
and  hearty  assistance  were  what  these  two  now 
expected  from  each  other. 

"  What  is  it  exactly  that  you  fear  ?"  she  asked, 
when  she  had  heard  the  news. 

"  That  is  hard  to  say,"  replied  Roland.  "  This 
man  Rovinski  is  a  scientific  jackal ;  he  has  am 
bitions  of  the  very  highest  kind,  and  he  seeks 
to  gratify  them  by  fraud  and  villainy.  It  is  now 
nearly  two  years  since  I  have  found  out  that  he 
has  been  shadowing  me,  endeavoring  to  discover 
what  I  am  doing  and  how  I  am  doing  it ;  and 
the  moment  he  does  get  a  practical  and  working 
knowledge  of  anything,  he  will  go  on  with  the 
business  on  my  lines  as  far  as  he  can.  Perhaps 
he  may  succeed,  and,  in  any  case,  he  will  be  al 
most  certain  to  ruin  my  chances  of  success — that 
is,  if  I  were  not  willing  to  buy  him  off.  He  would 
be  pretty  sure  to  try  blackmail  if  he  found  he 
could  not  make  good  use  of  the  knowledge  he  had 
stolen." 

"  The  wretch  !"  cried  Margaret     "  Do  you  sup- 


64  v         THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

pose  he  hopes  to  snatch  from  you  the  discovery 
of  the  pole  ?" 

"That  seems  obvious,"  replied  Roland,  "and 
it's  what  Sammy  thinks.  It  is  the  greatest  pity 
in  the  world  he  was  not  discovered  before  he  got 
on  the  Dipsey." 

"  But  what  can  you  do  ?"  cried  Margaret. 

"  I  cannot  imagine,"  he  replied,  "  unless  I  recall 
the  Dipsey  to  Cape  Tariff,  and  go  up  there  and 
have  him  apprehended." 

"  Couldn't  he  be  apprehended  where  he  is  ?"  she 
asked.  "  There  are  enough  men  on  board  to  capt 
ure  him  and  shut  him  up  somewhere  where  he 
could  do  no  harm." 

"  I  have  thought  of  that,"  answered  Roland, 
"but  it  would  be  a  very  difficult  and  delicate 
thing  to  do.  The  men  we  have  on  board  the 
Dipsey  are  trusty  fellows — at  least,  I  thought  so 
when  they  were  engaged — but  there  is  no  know 
ing  what  mutinous  poison  this  Pole  may  have  in 
fused  into  their  minds.  If  one  of  their  number 
should  be  handcuffed  and  shut  up  without  good 
reason  being  given,  they  might  naturally  rebel, 
and  it  would  be  very  hard  to  give  satisfactory 
reasons  for  arresting  Rovinski.  Even  Gibbs  might 
object  to  such  harshness  upon  grounds  which 
might  seem  to  him  vague  and  insufficient.  Sam 
my  knows  Rovinski,  I  know  him,  but  the  others 
do  not,  and  it  might  be  difficult  to  convince  them 
that  he  is  the  black-hearted  scoundrel  we  think 
him  ;  so  we  must  be  very  careful  what  we  do." 

"As  to  calling  the  Dipsey  back,"  said  Margaret, 
"  I  would  not  do  it ;  I  would  take  the  risks." 

"I  think  you  are  right,"  said  Clewe.     "I  have 


THE    DEVIL   ON   THE   DIPSEY  65 

a  feeling  that  if  they  come  back  to  Cape  Tariff 
they  will  not  go  out  again.  Some  of  the  men 
may  be  discouraged  already,  and  it  would  pro 
duce  a  bad  impression  upon  all  of  them  to  turn 
back  for  some  reason  which  they  did  not  under 
stand,  or  for  a  reason  such  as  we  could  give 
them.  I  would  not  like  to  have  to  bring  them 
back,  now  that  they  are  getting  on  so  well." 

In  the  course  of  the  morning  there  came  from 
the  officers,  men,  and  passenger  of  the  Dipsey  a 
very  cordial  and  pleasant  message  to  Mr.  Clewe 
and  Mrs.  Raleigh,  congratulating  them  upon  the 
happy  event  of  which  they  had  been  informed. 
Sarah  Block  insisted  on  sending  a  supplementary 
message  for  herself,  in  which  she  was  privately 
congratulatory  to  as  great  an  extent  as  her  hus 
band  would  allow  her  to  go,  and  which  ended 
with  a  hope  that  if  they  lived  to  be  married  they 
would  content  themselves  with  doing  their  ex 
plorations  on  solid  ground.  She  did  not  want  to 
come  back  until  she  had  seen  the  pole,  but  some 
of  her  ideas  about  that  kind  of  travelling  were 
getting  to  be  a  goou  deal  more  fixed  than  they 
had  been. 

The  advice  which  Roland  Clewe  gave  to  Samuel 
Block  was  simple  enough  and  perhaps  unneces 
sary,  but  there  was  nothing  else  for  him  to  say. 
He  urged  that  the  strictest  watch  be  kept  on  Ro- 
vinski ;  that  he  should  never  be  allowed  to  go 
near  the  telegraph  instrument ;  and  if,  by  insub 
ordination  or  any  bad  conduct,  a  pretext  for  his 
punishment  should  offer  itself,  he  should  be  im 
mediately  shut  up  where  he  could  not  commu 
nicate  with  the  men.  It  was  very  important  to 
5 


66  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

keep  him  as  much  as  possible  in  ignorance  of 
what  was  going  on  and  of  what  should  be  accom 
plished  ;  that,  after  all,  was  the  main  point.  If 
the  pole  should  be  discovered,  Rovinski  must 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Sammy  replied  that 
everything  should  he  reported  as  soon  as  it  turn 
ed  up,  and  any  orders  received  from  Mr.  Clewe 
should  be  carried  out  so  long  as  he  was  alive  to 
help  carry  them. 

"Now,"  said  Roland  to  Margaret,  "there's 
nothing  more  that  we  can  do  in  regard  to  that 
affair.  As  soon  as  there  are  any  new  develop 
ments  we  shall  have  to  consider  it  again,  but 
until  then  let  us  give  up  our  whole  souls  to  each  H 
other  and  the  Artesian  ray." 

"  It  seems  to  me,"  said  she,  "  that  if  we  could 
have  discovered  a  good  while  ago  some  sort  of 
ray  by  which  we  could  see  into  each  other's  jsojils^ 
we  should  have  gained  a  great  many  hours  which 
are  now  lost." 

"  Not  at  all,"  replied  Clewe ;  "  they  are  not  lost. 
In  our  philosophy,  nothing  is  lost.  All  the  joys 
we  have  missed  in  days  that  are  past  shall  be 
crowded  into  the  days  that  are  to  come." 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE    ARTESIAN    RAY 

IN  less  than  a  week  after  the  engagement  of 
Roland  Clewe  and  Margaret  Raleigh  work  on  the 
great  machine  which  was  to  generate  the  Arte 
sian  ray  had  so  far  progressed  that  it  was  possi 
ble  to  make  some  preliminary  experiments  with 
it.  Although  Clewe  was  sorry  to  think  of  the 
very  undesirable  companion  which  Samuel  Block 
had  carried  with  him  into  the  polar  regions,  he 
could  not  but  feel  a  certain  satisfaction  when  he  re 
flected  that  there  was  now  no  danger  of  Rovinski 
gaining  any  knowledge  of  the  momentous  opera 
tions  which  he  had  in  hand  in  Sardis.  He  had 
had  frequent  telegrams  from  Sammy,  but  no 
trouble  of  any  kind  had  yet  arisen.  It  was  true 
that  the  time  for  trouble,  if  there  were  to  be  any, 
had  probably  not  yet  arrived,  but  Clewe  could 
not  afford  to  disturb  his  mind  with  anticipations 
of  disagreeable  things  which  might  happen. 

The  masses  of  lenses,  batteries,  tubes,  and  coils 
which  constituted  the  new  instrument  had  been 
set  up  in  the  lens  -  house,  and  it  was  with  this 
invention  that  Clewe  had  succeeded  in  produc 
ing  that  new  form  of  light  which  would  not  only 
penetrate  any  material  substance,  but  illuminate 
and  render  transparent  everything  through  which 


68  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

it  passed,  and  which  would,  it  was  hoped,  extend 
itself  into  the  earth  to  a  depth  only  limited  by 
the  electric  power  used  to  generate  it. 

Margaret  was  very  anxious  to  be  present  at  the 
first  experiment,  but  Clewe  was  not  willing  that 
this  should  be. 

"It  is  almost  certain,"  he  said,  "that  there  will 
be  failures  at  first,  not  caused  perhaps  by  any 
radical  defects  in  the  apparatus,  but  by  some 
minor  fault  in  some  part  of  it.  This  almost  al 
ways  happens  in  a  new  machine,  and  then  there 
are  uninteresting  work  and  depressing  waiting. 
As  soon  as  I  see  that  my  invention  will  act  as  I 
want  it  to  act,  I  shall  have  you  in  the  lens-house 
with  me.  We  may  not  be  able  to  do  very  much 
at  first,  but  when  I  really  begin  to  do  anything  I 
want  both  of  us  to  see  it  done." 

There  was  no  flooring  in  that  part  of  the  lens- 
house  where  the  machine  was  set  up,  for  Clewe 
wished  his  new  light  to  operate  directly  upon  the 
earth.  At  about  eight  feet  above  the  ground 
was  the  opening  through  which  the  Artesian  ray 
would  pass  perpendicularly  downward  whenever 
the  lever  should  be  moved  which  would  connect 
the  main  electric  current. 

When  all  was  ready,  Clewe  sent  every  one,  even 
Bryce,  the  master-workman,  from  the  room.  If 
his  invention  should  totally  fail,  he  wanted  no 
one  but  himself  to  witness  that  failure  ;  but  if 
it  should  succeed,  or  even  give  promise  of  doing 
so,  he  would  be  glad  to  have  the  eyes  of  his  trusted 
associates  witness  that  success.  When  the  doors 
were  shut  and  locked,  Clewe  moved  a  lever,  and  a 
disk  of  light  three  feet  in  diameter  immediately 


THE   ARTESIAN    RAY  69 

appeared  upon  the  ground.  It  was  a  colorless 
light,  but  it  seemed  to  give  a  more  vivid  hue  to 
everything  it  shone  upon  —  such  as  the  little 
stones,  a  piece  of  wood  half  embedded  in  the 
earth,  grains  of  sand,  and  pieces  of  mortar.  In  a 
few  seconds,  however,  these  things  all  disappeared, 
and  there  revealed  itself  to  the  eyes  of  Clewe  a 
perfectly  smooth  surface  of  brown  earth.  This 
continued  for  some  little  time,  now  and  then  a 
rounded  or  a  flattened  stone  appearing  in  it,  and 
then  gradually  fading  away. 

As  Clewe  stared  intently  down  upon  the  illumi 
nated  space,  the  brown  earth  seemed  to  melt  and 
disappear,  and  he  gazed  upon  a  surface  of  fine 
sand,  dark  or  yellowish,  thickly  interspersed  with 
gravel-stones.  This  appearance  changed,  and  a 
large  rounded  stone  was  seen  almost  in  the  centre 
of  the  glowing  disk.  The  worn  and  smooth  sur 
face  of  the  stone  faded  away,  and  he  beheld  what 
looked  like  a  split  section  of  a  cobble-stone.  Then 
it  disappeared  altogether,  and  there  was  another 
flat  surface  of  gravel  and  sand. 

Between  himself  and  the  illuminated  space  on 
which  he  gazed  —  his  breath  quick  and  his  eyes 
widely  distended — there  seemed  to  be  nothing  at 
all.  To  all  appearances  he  was  looking  into  a 
cylindrical  hole  a  few  feet  deep.  Everything  be 
tween  the  bottom  of  this  hole  and  himself  was 
invisible  ;  the  light  had  made  intervening  sub 
stances  transparent,  and  had  deprived  them  of 
color  and  outlines.  It  was  as  though  he  looked 
through  air. 

Then  his  eyes  fell  upon  the  sides  of  this  cylin 
drical  opening,  and  these,  illuminated,  but  not 


70  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

otherwise  acted  upon  by  the  volume  of  Artesian 
rays,  showed,  in  all  their  true  colors  and  forms, 
everything  which  went  to  make  up  the  sides  of 
the  bright  cavity  into  which  he  looked.  He  saw 
the  various  strata  of  clay,  sand,  gravel,  exactly  as 
he  would  have  seen  them  in  a  circular  hole  cut 
accurately  and  smoothly  into  the  earth.  No  stone 
or  lump  protruded  from  the  side  of  this  apparent 
excavation,  the  inner  surface  of  which  was  as 
smooth  as  if  it  had  been  cut  down  with  a  sharp 
instrument. 

Clewe  was  frightened.  Was  it  possible  that 
this  could  be  an  imaginary  cavity  into  which  he 
was  looking  ?  He  drew  back  ;  he  was  about  to 
put  out  one  foot  to  feel  if  it  were  really  solid 
ground  upon  which  this  light  was  pouring,  but 
he  refrained.  He  got  a  long  stick,  and  with  it 
touched  the  centre  of  the  light.  What  he  felt 
was  hard  and  solid ;  the  end  of  the  stick  seemed 
to  melt,  and  this  startled  him.  He  pulled  back 
the  stick — he  could  go  on  no  further  by  himself. 
He  must  have  somebody  in  here  with  him ;  he 
must  have  the  testimony  of  some  other  eyes  ;  he 
needed  the  company  of  a  man  with  a  cool  and 
^steady^  brain. 

He  ran  to  the  door  and  called  Bryce.  When 
the  master-workman  had  entered  and  the  door 
had  been  locked  behind  him,  he  exclaimed : 

"  How  pale  you  are  !     Does  it  work  ?" 

"  I  think  so,"  said  Clewe  ;  "  but  perhaps  I  am 
crazy  and  only  imagine  it.  You  see  that  circular 
patch  of  light  upon  the  ground  there  ?  I  want 
you  to  go  close  to  it  and  look  down  upon  it,  and 
tell  me  what  you  see." 


•'••••'•"  T." 


"THE    END   OF    THE    STICK   SEEMED    TO    MELT 


THE   ARTESIAN    RAY  71 

Bryce  stepped  quickly  to  the  illuminated 
space.  He  looked  down  at  it ;  then  he  ap 
proached  nearer  ;  then  he  carefully  placed  his 
feet  by  its  edge  and  leaned  over  further,  gazing 
intently  downward,  and  he  exclaimed  : 

"  Good  heavens  !  How  did  you  make  the 
hole?" 

At  that  moment  he  heard  a  groan,  and,  looking 
across  the  illuminated  space,  he  saw  Clewe  totter 
ing.  In  the  next  moment  he  was  stretched  upon 
the  ground  in  a  dead  faint. 

When  Bryce  had  hurried  to  the  side  of  his  em 
ployer  and  had  thrown  a  pitcher  of  water  over 
him,  it  was  not  long  before  Clewe  revived.  In 
answer  to  Bryce's  inquiries  he  simply  replied 
that  he  supposed  he  had  been  too  much  excited 
by  the  success  of  his  work. 

"You  see,"  said  he,  "that  was  not  a  hole  at 
all  that  you  were  looking  into ;  it  was  the  solid 
earth  made  transparent  by  the  Artesian  ray. 
The  thing  works  perfectly.  Please  step  to  that 
lever  and  turn  it  off.  I  can  stand  no  more  at 
present." 

Bryce  moved  the  lever,  and  the  light  upon  the 
ground  disappeared.  He  approached  the  place 
where  it  had  been  ;  it  was  nothing  but  common 
earth.  He  put  his  foot  upon  it  ;  he  stamped ;  it 
was  as  solid  as  any  other  part  of  the  State. 

"  And  yet  I  have  looked  down  into  it,"  he  ejacu 
lated,  "at  least  half  a  dozen  feet !" 

When  Bryce  turned  and  went  back  to  Clewe, 
he  too  was  pale. 

"  I  do  not  wonder  you  fainted,"  said  he.  "  I  do 
not  believe  it  was  what  you  saw  that  upset  you  ; 


72  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

it  was  what  you  expected  to  see — wasn't  that 
it?" 

Clewe  nodded  in  an  indefinite  way.  "  We  won't 
talk  about  it  now,"  said  he.  "  I  don't  want  any 
more  experiments  to-day.  We  will  cover  up  the 
instrument  and  go." 

When  Roland  Clewe  reached  his  room,  he  sat 
down  in  the  arm-chair  to-think.  He  had  made  a 
grand  and  wonderful  success,  but  it  was  not  upon 
that  that  his  jnind  was  now  fixed.  It  was  upon 
the  casual  and  accidental  effect  of  the  work  of 
his  invention,  of  which  he  had  never  dreamed. 
Bryce  had  made  a  great  mistake  in  thinking  that 
it  was  not  what  Roland  Clewe  had  seen,  but  what 
he  had  expected  to  see,  which  had  caused  him  to 
drop  insensible.  It  was  what  he  had  seen. 

When  the  master  -  workman  had  approached 
the  lighted  space  upon  the  ground,  Clewe  stood 
opposite  to  him,  a  little  distance  from  the  appa 
ratus.  As  Bryce  looked  down,  he  leaned  forward 
more  and  more,  until  the  greater  part  of  his  body 
was  directly  over  the  lighted  space.  Looking  at 
him,  Clewe  was  startled,  amazed,  and  horrified  to 
find  all  that  portion  of  his  person  which  project 
ed  itself  into  the  limits  of  the  light  had  entirely 
disappeared,  and  that  he  was  gazing  upon  a  sec 
tion  of  a  man's  trunk,  brightly  illuminated,  and 
displayed  in  all  its  internal  colors  and  outlines. 
Such  a  sight  was  enough  to  take  away  the  senses 
of  any  man,  and  he  did  not  wonder  that  he  had 
fainted. 

"  Now,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  all  the  time  that  I 
was  looking  into  that  apparent  hole,  never  think 
ing  that  in  order  to  see  down  into  it  I  was  obliged 


THE   ARTESIAN    RAY  73 

to  project  a  portion  of  myself  into  the  line  of  the 
Artesian  ray,  that  portion  of  me  was  transparent, 
invisible.  If  Bryce  had  come  in  !  and  then  " — as 
the  thought  came  into  his  jnindjiis  heart  stopped 
beating — "  if  Margaret  had  been  there  !" 

For  an  hour  he  sat  in  his  chair,  racking  his 
brain. 

"  She  must  see  the  working  of  the  ray,"  he  said. 
"  I  must  tell  her  of  my  success.  She  must  see  it 
as  soon  as  possible.  It  is  cruel  to  keep  her  wait 
ing.  But  how  shall  I  manage  it?  How  shall  I 
shield  her  from  the  slightest  possibility  of  what 
happened  to  me?  Heavens!"  he  exclaimed,  "if 
she  had  been  there  !" 

After  a  time  he  determined  that  before  any 
further  experiments  should  take  place  he  would 
build  a  circular  screen,  a  little  room,  which  should 
entirely  surround  the  space  on  which  the  Arte 
sian  ray  was  operated.  Only  one  person  at  a  time 
should  be  allowed  to  enter  this  screened  apart 
ment,  which  should  then  be  closed.  It  would 
make  no  difference  if  one  should  become  invisi 
ble,  provided  there  was  no  one  else  to  know  it. 

It  was  on  the  evening  of  the  next  day  that 
Margaret  beheld  the  action  of  the  Artesian  ray. 
She  greatly  objected  at  first  to  going  inside  of 
the  screened  space  by  herself,  and  urged  Roland 
to  accompany  her ;  but  this  he  stoutly  refused  to 
do,  assuring  her  that  it  was  essential  for  but  one 
person  at  a  time  to  view  the  action  of  the  ray. 
She  demurred  a  good  deal,  but  at  last  consented 
to  allow  herself  to  be  shut  up  within  the  screen. 

What  Margaret  saw  was  different  from  the 
gradual  excavation  which  had  revealed  itself  be- 


74  THE    GREAT   STONE    OF   SARDIS 

fore  the  eyes  of  Roland.  She  looked  immediately 
into  a  hole  nearly  ten  feet  deep.  The  action  of 
the  apparatus  was  such  that  the  power  of  pene 
tration  gained  by  the  ray  during  its  operation  at 
any  time  was  retained,  so  that  when  the  current 
was  shut  off  the  photic  boring  ceased,  and  recom 
menced  when  the  batteries  were  again  put  into 
action  at  the  point  where  it  had  left  off.  The 
moment  Margaret  looked  down  she  gave  a  little 
cry,  and  started  back  against  the  screen.  She 
was  afraid  she  would  fall  in. 

"  Roland,"  she  exclaimed,  "  you  don't  mean 
to  say  that  this  is  not  really  an  opening  into  the 
earth  ?" 

He  was  near  her  on  the  other  side  of  the  screen, 
and  he  explained  to  her  the  action  of  the  light. 
Over  and  over  she  asked  him  to  come  inside 
and  tell  her  what  it  was  she  saw,  but  he  always 
refused. 

"  The  bottom  is  beautifully  smooth  and  gray," 
she  exclaimed  ;  "  what  is  that  ?" 

"  Sand,"  said  Roland. 

"  And  now  it  is  white,  like  a  piece  of  pottery," 
she  exclaimed. 

"  That  is  white  clay,"  said  he. 

"  Don't  you  want  to  take  my  place,"  said  she, 
"  if  you  will  not  come  with  me  ?" 

"  No,"  said  Roland.  "  Look  down  as  long  as 
you  wish  ;  I  know  pretty  well  what  you  will  see 
for  some  time  to  come.  Has  there  been  any 
change  ?" 

"  The  bottom  is  still  white,"  she  replied,  "  but 
it  is  glittering." 

"  That  is  white  sand,"  said  he.     "  The  Artesian 


THE    ARTESIAN    RAY  75 

well  which  supplies  the  works  revealed  to  me  long 
ago  the  character  of  the  soil  at  this  spot,  so  that 
for  a  hundred  feet  or  more  I  know  what  we  may 
expect  to  see." 

She  came  out  hurriedly.  "  When  you  begin  to 
speak  of  wells,"  she  said,  "  I  am  frightened.  If  I 
should  see  water,  I  should  lose  my  head."  She 
sat  down  and  put  her  hand  before  her  eyes.  "  My  ! 
^h^ain  is  dazzled"  she  said.  u  I  don't  feel  strong 
enough  to  believe  what  I  have  seen." 

Roland  shut  off  the  current  and  opened  the 
screen.  "  Come  here,  Margaret,"  he  said  ;  "  this  is 
the  spot  upon  which  the  light  was  shining.  I 
think  it  will  do  you  good  to  look  at  it.  Tread 
upon  it ;  it  will  help  to  reassure  you  that  the 
things  about  us  are  real." 

Margaret  was  silent  for  a  few  moments,  and 
then,  approaching  Roland,  she  took  him  by  both 
hands.  "  You  have  succeeded,"  said  she  ;  "  you 
are  the  greatest  discoverer  of  this  age  !" 

"  My  dear  Margaret,"  he  interrupted,  quickly, 
"  do  not  let  us  talk  in  that  way  ;  we  have  only 
just  begun  to  work.  Above  all  things,  do  not  let 
us  get  excited.  If  everything  works  properly,  it 
will  not  be  long  before  I  can  send  the  Artesian 
ray  down  into  depths  with  which  I  am  not  ac 
quainted — how  far  I  do  not  know — but  we  must 
wait  and  see  what  is  the  utmost  we  can  do. 
When  we  have  reached  that  point,  it  will  be  in 
order  to  hoist  our  flags  and  blow  our  trumpets. 
I  hope  it  will  not  be  long  before  the  light  de 
scends  so  deep  that  we  shall  be  obliged  to  use  a 
telescope." 

"And  will  it  not  be  possible,  Roland,"  Marga- 


76  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

ret  said,  earnestly,  "  that  we  shall  ever  look  down 
into  the  earth  together?  When  the  light  gets 
beyond  the  depth  to  which  people  have  dug  and 
bored,  I  shall  never  want  to  stand  there  alone  be 
hind  the  screen  and  see  what  next  shall  show  it 
self." 

"That  screen  is  an  awkward  affair,"  said  Ro 
land.  "Perhaps  I  may  think  of  a  method  by 
which  it  can  be  done  away  with,  and  by  which 
we  can  stand  side  by  side  and  look  down  as  far 
into  the  depths  of  the  earth  as  our  Artesian  ray 
can  be  induced  to  bore." 


CHAPTER   X 


STEADILY  the  Dipsey  worked  her  way  north 
ward,  and  as  she  moved  on  her  course  her  prog 
ress  became  somewhat  slower  than  it  had  been 
at  first.  This  decrease  in  speed  was  due  partially 
to  extreme  caution  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Gibbs,  the 
Master  Electrician. 

The  attenuated  cable,  which  continually  stretch 
ed  itself  out  behind  the  little  vessel,  was  of  the 
most  recent  and  improved  pattern  for  deep-sea 
cables.  The  conducting  wires  in  the  centre  of  it 
were  scarcely  thicker  than  hairs,  while  the  wires 
forming  the  surrounding  envelope,  although  they 
were  so  small  as  to  make  the  whole  cable  not 
more  than  an  eighth  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  were 
far  stronger  than  the  thick  submarine  cables 
which  were  used  in  the  early  days  of  ocean  teleg 
raphy.  These  outer  wires  were  made  of  the 
Swedish  toughened  steel  fibre,  and  in  1939,  with 
one  of  them  a  little  over  a  sixteenth  of  an  inch 
in  diameter,  a  freight -ship  of  eleven  thousand 
tons  had  been  towed  through  the  Great  New 
Jersey  Canal,  which  had  then  just  been  opened, 
and  which  connected  Philadelphia  with  the  ocean. 

But  notwithstanding  his  faith  in  the  strength 
of  the  cable,  Mr.  Gibbs  felt  more  and  more,  the 


78  THE    GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

farther  he  progressed  from  the  habitable  world, 
the  importance  of  preserving  it  from  accident. 
He  had  gone  so  far  that  it  would  be  a  grievous 
thing  to  be  obliged  to  turn  back. 

The  Dipsey  sailed  at  a  much  lower  depth  than 
when  she  had  first  started  upon  her  submarine 
way.  After  they  had  become  accustomed  to  the 
feeling  of  being  surrounded  by  water,  her  in 
mates  seemed  to  feel  a  greater  sense  of  security 
when  they  were  well  down  below  all  possible  dis 
turbing  influence.  When  they  looked  forward  in 
the  line  of  the  search-light,  or  through  any  of  the 
windows  in  various  parts  of  the  vessel,  they  never 
saw  anything  but  water  —  no  fish,  nothing  float 
ing.  They  were  too  far  below  the  ice  above  them 
to  see  it,  and  too  far  from  what  might  be  on 
either  side  of  them  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  it.  The 
bottom  was  deep  below  them,  and  it  was  as 
though  they  were  moving  through  an  aqueous 
atmosphere. 

They  were  comfortable,  and  beginning  to  be 
accustomed  to  their  surrounding  circumstances. 
The  air  came  in  regularly  and  steadily  through 
the  electric  gills,  and  when  deteriorated  air  had 
collected  in  the  expiration-chamber  in  the  upper 
part  of  the  vessel,  it  was  forced  out  by  a  great 
piston,  which  sent  it  by  a  hundred  little  valves 
into  the  surrounding  water.  Thus  the  pure  air 
came  in  and  the  refuse  air  went  out  just  as  if  the 
little  Dipsey  had  been  healthfully  breathing  as  it 
pushed  its  way  through  the  depths. 

Mrs.  Block  was  gaining  flesh.  The  narrow  ac 
commodations,  the  everlasting  electric  light;  the 
sameness  of  food,  and  a  total  absence  of  incident 


LAKE    SHIVER  79 

had  become  quite  natural  to  her,  and  she  had 
ceased  to  depend  upon  the  companionship  of  the 
dust-brush  and  the  almanac  to  carry  her  mind 
back  to  what  she  considered  the  real  things  of 
life. 

Sarah  had  something  better  now  to  take  her 
mind  back  to  Sardis  and  the  people  and  things 
on  dry  land.  The  engagement  and  probably  ear 
ly  marriage  of  Mr.  Clewe  and  Mrs.  Raleigh  had 
made  a  great  impression  upon  her,  and  there 
were  days  when  she  never  thought  of  the  pole, 
so  busy  was  she  in  making  plans  based  upon  the- 
future  connection  of  the  life  of  herself  and  Sam 
my  and  that  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Clewe. 

Sammy  and  his  wife  had  very  good  quarters 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  works,  but  Sarah 
had  never  been  quite  satisfied  with  them,  and 
when  the  new  household  of  Clewe  should  be  set 
up,  and  all  the  new  domestic  arrangements  should 
be  made,  she  hoped  for  better  things.  Mr.  Clewe's 
little  cottage  would  then  be  vacant,  for  of  course 
he  and  his  wife  would  not  live  in  such  a  place 
as  that,  and  she  thought  that  she  and  Sammy 
should  have  it.  Hour  by  hour  and  day  by  day 
she  planned  the  furnishing,  the  fitting,  and  the 
management  of  this  cottage. 

She  was  determined  to  have  a  servant,  a  woman 
thoroughly  capable  of  doing  general  house-work; 
and  then  there  were  times  when  she  believed  that 
if  Sammy  should  succeed  in  finding  the  pole 
his  salary  would  be  increased,  and  they  might  be 
able  to  afford  two  servants.  Over  and  over  again 
did  she  consider  the  question  whether,  in  this 
latter  case,  these  women  should  both  be  general 


8o  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP    SARDIS 

house-work  servants,  or  one  of  them  a  cook  and 
the  other  a  chamber-maid  and  laundress.  There 
was  much  to  be  considered  on  each  side.  In  the 
latter  case  more  efficient  work  could  be  obtained  ; 
but  in  the  former,  in  case  one  of  them  should 
suddenly  leave,  or  go  away  for  a  day  out,  the 
other  could  do  all  the  work.  It  was  very  pleasant 
to  Mrs.  Block  to  sit  in  a  comfortable  arm-chair 
and  gaze  thus  into  the  future.  Sometimes  she 
looked  up  into  the  water  above,  and  sometimes 
out  into  the  water  ahead,  but  she  could  see  noth 
ing.  But  in  the  alluring  expanse  of  her  fancied 
future  she  could  see  anything  which  she  chose 
to  put  there. 

Sammy,  however,  did  not  increase  in  flesh  ;  in 
fact,  he  grew  thinner.  Nothing  important  in 
regard  to  the  Pole,  Rovinski,  had  occurred,  but 
of  course  something  would  occur  ;  otherwise  why 
did  the  Pole  come  on  board  the  Dipsey  ?  End 
less  conjectures  as  to  what  Rovinski  would  do 
when  he  did  anything,  and  when  he  would  be 
gin  to  do  it,  kept  the  good  Samuel  awake  during 
many  hours  when  he  should  have  been  soundly 
sleeping.  He  had  said  nothing  yet  to  Mr.  Gibbs 
in  regard  to  the  matter.  Every  day  he  made 
a  report  to  Roland  Clewe  about  Rovinski,  but 
Clewe's  instructions  were  that  so  long  as  the 
Pole  behaved  himself  properly  there  was  no  rea 
son  to  trouble  the  minds  of  the  party  on  board 
with  fears  of  rascality  on  his  part.  They  had 
enough  to  occupy  their  .rninds  without  any  dis 
turbing  influence  of  that  sort. 

Clewe's  own  opinion  on  the  subject  was  that 
Rovinski  could  do  nothing  but  act  as  a  spy,  and 


"LAKE  SHIVER"  81 

afterwards  make  dishonest  use  of  the  knowledge 
he  should  acquire ;  but  the  man  had  put  himself 
into  Clewe's  power,  and  he  could  not  possibly  get 
away  from  him  until  he  should  return  to  Cape 
Tariff,  and  even  there  it  would  be  difficult.  The 
proper  and  only  thing  to  do  was  to  keep  him  in 
custody  as  long  as  possible.  When  he  should  be 
brought  back  to  a  region  of  law  and  justice,  it 
might  be  that  the  Pole  could  be  prevented,  for  a 
time,  at  least,  from  using  the  results  of  his  knav 
ish  observations. 

There  was  another  person  on  board  whose 
mind  was  disturbed  by  Rovinski.  This  was  Mr. 
Marcy,  the  Assistant  Engineer,  an  active,  ener 
getic  fellow,  filled  with  ambition  and  love  of  ad 
venture,  and  one  of  the  most  hopeful  and  cheer 
ful  persons  on  board.  He  had  never  heard  of 
Rovinski,  and  did  not  know  that  there  was  any 
body  in  the  world  who  was  trying  to  benefit  him 
self  by  fraudulent  knowledge  of  Mr.  Clewe's  dis 
coveries  and  inventions,  but  he  hated  the  Pole 
on  his  own  account. 

The  man's  countenance  was  so  villainous  that 
it  was  enough  of  itself  to  arouse  the  dislike  of  a 
healthy -minded  young  fellow  such  as  Marcy; 
but,  moreover,  the  Pole  had  habits  of  sneaking 
about  the  vessel,  and  afterwards  retiring  to  quiet 
corners,  where  he  would  scribble  in  a  pocket  note 
book.  Such  conduct  as  this  in  a  man  whose  po= 
sition  corresponded  with  that  of  a  common  sea 
man  on  an  ordinary  vessel,  seemed  contrary  to 
discipline  and  good  conduct,  and  he  mentioned 
the  matter  to  Mr.  Gibbs. 

"  I  suppose  the  man  is  writing  a  letter  to  his 
6 


82  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP    SARDIS 

wife,"  said  the  latter.  "  You  would  not  want  to 
hinder  him  from  doing  that,  would  you  ?" 

And  to  this  no  good  answer  could  be  made. 

The  Pole  never  took  notes  when  Sammy  was 
anywhere  where  he  could  see  him,  and  if  Mr. 
Marcy  had  reported  this  conduct  to  the  old  man, 
it  is  likely  that  Rovinski  would  speedily  have 
been  deprived  of  pencils  and  paper,  and  his  real 
character  made  known  to  the  officers. 

One  day  it  was  observed  by  those  who  looked 
out  of  the  window  in  the  upper  deck  that  the 
water  above  them  was  clearer  than  they  usually 
saw  it,  and  when  the  electric  lights  in  the  room 
immediately  under  the  window  were  turned  out 
it  was  almost  possible  to  discern  objects  in  the 
room.  Instantly  there  was  a  great  stir  on  board 
the  Dipsey,  and  observations  soon  disclosed  the 
fact  that  there  was  nothing  above  the  vessel  but 
water  and  air. 

At  first,  like  an  electric  flash,  the  thought  ran 
through  the  vessel  that  they  had  reached  the 
open  sea  which  is  supposed  to  surround  the  pole, 
but  reflection  soon  showed  those  who  were  cool 
enough  to  reflect  that  if  this  were  the  case  that 
sea  must  be  much  larger  than  they  had  sup 
posed,  for  they  were  still  a  long  way  from  the 
pole.  Upon  one  thing,  however,  everybody  was 
agreed :  they  must  ascend  without  loss  of  time 
to  the  surface  of  the  water  above  them. 

Up  went  the  Dipsey,  and  it  was  not  long  be 
fore  the  great  glass  in  the  upper  deck  admitted 
pure  light  from  the  outer  world.  Then  the  vessel 
rose  boldly  and  floated  upon  the  surface  of  the 
open  sea. 


"LAKE  SHIVER"  83 

The  hatchways  were  thrown  open,  and  in  a  few 
moments  nearly  everybody  on  board  stood  upon 
the  upper  deck,  breathing  the  outer  air  and  gaz 
ing  about  them  in  the  pure  sunlight.  The  deck 
was  almost  flat,  and  surrounded  by  a  rail.  The 
flooring  was  wet,  and  somewhat  slippery,  but 
nobody  thought  of  that ;  they  thought  of  noth 
ing  but  the  wonderful  place  in  which  they  found 
themselves. 

They  were  in  a  small  lake  surrounded  by  lofty 
and  precipitous  icebergs.  On  every  side  these 
glittering  crags  rose  high  into  the  air  ;  nowhere 
was  there  a  break  or  an  opening.  They  seemed 
to  be  in  a  great  icy  prison.  It  might  be  supposed 
that  it  would  be  exhilarating  to  a  party  who  had 
long  been  submerged  beneath  the  sea  to  stand 
once  more  in  the  open  air  and  in  the  light  of  day; 
but  this  was  not  the  case.  The  air  they  breathed 
was  sharp  and  cold,  and  cut  into  throats  and 
lungs  now  accustomed  to  the  softer  air  within 
their  vessel.  Scarcely  any  of  them,  hurrying  out 
of  the  warm  cabins,  had  thought  of  the  necessity 
of  heavy  wraps,  and  the  bitter  cold  of  the  outer 
air  perceptibly  chilled  their  blood.  Involuntarily, 
even  while  they  were  staring  about  them,  they 
hurried  up  and  down  the  deck  to  keep  themselves 
warm. 

The  officers  puzzled  their  brains  over  the  pecul 
iar  formation  of  this  ice -encompassed  lake.  It 
seemed  as  if  a  great  ice  mountain  had  sunk  down 
from  the  midst  of  its  companions,  and  had  left 
this  awful  hole.  This,  however,  was  impossible. 
No  law  of  nature  would  account  for  such  a  disap 
pearance  of  an  ice  mountain.  Mr.  Gibbs  thought, 


84  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP    SARDIS 

under  some  peculiar  circumstances,  a  mass  of  ice 
might  have  broken  away  and  floated  from  its 
surroundings,  and  that  afterwards,  increased  in 
size,  it  had  floated  back  again,  and,  too  large  to 
re-enter  the  opening  it  had  made,  had  closed  up 
the  frozen  walls  of  this  lonely  lake,  accessible  only 
to  those  who  should  rise  up  into  it  from  the  sea. 
Suddenly  Mrs.  Block  stopped. 

"  What  is  that  ?"  she  cried,  pointing  to  a  spot 
in  the  icy  wall  which  was  nearest  to  the  vessel. 
Instantly  every  eye  was  turned  that  way.  They 
saw  a  very  distinct,  irregular  blotch,  surrounded 
by  almost  transparent  ice. 

Several  glasses  were  now  levelled  upon  this 
spot,  and  it  was  discovered  to  be  the  body  of  a 
polar  bear,  lying  naturally  upon  its  side,  as  if 
asleep,  and  entirely  incased  in  ice. 

"  It  must  have  lain  down  to  die,  on  the  surface 
of  the  ice,"  said  Mr.  Gibbs,  "  and  gradually  the 
ice  has  formed  above  it,  until  it  now  rests  in  that 
vast  funeral  casket." 

"  How  long  since  he  laid  down  there  to  die,  Mr. 
Gibbs  ?"  asked  Sarah,  as  she  took  the  glass  from 
her  eye.  "  He  looks  as  natural  as  if  he  was  asleep." 

"  I  cannot  say,"  he  answered.  "  It  may  have 
been  hundreds,  even  thousands,  of  years  ago." 

"Oh,  horrible!"  said  Sarah.  "All  that  makes 
me  shiver,  and  I  am  sure  I  don't  need  anything 
to  make  me  do  that.  I  wish  we  would  go  down, 
Sammy  ;  I  would  like  to  get  out  of  this  awful 
place,  with  those  dreadful  glitterin'  walls  that 
nobody  could  get  up  or  over,  and  things  lyin' 
frozen  for  a  thousand  years  ;  and,  besides,  it's  so 
cold !" 


It  seemed  as  if  Sarah's  words  had  struck  the 
key-note  to  the  feelings  of  the  whole  company. 
In  the  heart  of  every  one  arose  a  strong  desire 
to  sink  out  of  this  cold,  bleak,  terrifying  open  air 
into  the  comfortable  motherly  arms  of  the  en 
circling  waters.  For  a  few  minutes  Captain  Jim 
Hubbell  had  experienced  a  sense  of  satisfaction 
at  finding  himself  once  more  upon  the  deck  of  a 
vessel  floating  upon  the  open  sea.  He  felt  that 
he  was  in  his  element,  and  that  the  time  had 
come  for  him  to  assume  his  proper  position  as  a 
sailor  ;  but  this  feeling  soon  passed,  and  he  de 
clared  that  his  spine  was  like  a  long  icicle. 

"  Don't  you  think  we  had  better  go  down 
again  ?"  said  Sammy.  "  I  think  we  have  all  seen 
enough  of  this,  and  it  isn't  anything  that  any  use 
can  be  made  of." 

"You  are  right,"  said  Mr.  Gibbs  ;  "let  every 
body  go  below." 

But  it  was  not  easy  for  everybody  to  obey  this 
command.  The  wet  decks  were  now  covered  with 
a  thin  surface  of  ice,  and  those  who  had  been 
standing  still  for  a  few  moments  found  it  difficult 
to  release  their  shoes  from  the  flooring  of  the 
deck,  while  several  of  the  men  slipped  down  as 
they  made  their  way  to  the  forward  hatch.  As 
for  Sarah  Block,  she  found  it  impossible  to  move 
at  all.  Her  shoes  were  of  a  peculiar  kind,  the 
soles  being  formed  of  thick  felt,  and  these,  having 
been  soaked  with  water,  had  frozen  firmly  to  the 
deck.  She  tried  to  make  a  step  and  almost  fell 
over. 

u  Heavens  and  earth !"  she  screamed ;  "  don't  let 
this  boat  go  down  and  leave  me  standing  outside!" 


86  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

Her  husband  and  two  men  tried  to  release  her, 
but  they  could  not  disengage  her  shoes  from  the 
deck  ;  so  Sammy  was  obliged  to  loosen  her  shoe 
strings,  and  then  he  and  another  man  lifted  her 
out  of  her  shoes  and  carried  her  to  the  hatchway, 
whence  she  very  speedily  hurried  below. 

Everybody  was  now  inside  the  vessel,  the 
hatches  were  tightly  closed,  and  the  Dipsey  began 
to  sink.  When  she  had  descended  to  the  com 
paratively  temperate  depths  of  the  sea,  and  her 
people  found  themselves  in  her  warm  and  well- 
lighted  compartments,  there  was  a  general  dis 
position  to  go  about  and  shake  hands  with  each 
other.  Some  of  them  even  sang  little  snatches  of 
songs,  so  relieved  were  they  to  get  down  out  of 
that  horrible  upper  air. 

"  Of  course  I  shall  never  see  my  shoes  again," 
said  Mrs.  Block  ;  "  and  they  were  mighty  com 
fortable  ones,  too.  I  suppose,  when  they  have 
been  down  here  awhile  in  this  water,  which  must 
be  almost  lukewarmish  compared  to  what  it  is 
on  top,  they  will  melt  loose  and  float  up  ;  and 
then,  Sammy,  suppose  they  lodge  on  some  of  that 
ice  and  get  frozen  for  a  thousand  years !  Good 
gracious  !  It  sets  me  all  of  a  creep  to  think  of 
that  happenin'  to  my  shoes,  that  I  have  been 
wearin'  every  day  !  Don't  you  want  a  cup  of 
tea?" 

"  It's  a  great  pity,"  thought  Sammy  to  himself, 
"  that  it  wasn't  that  Pole  that  had  his  feet  frozen 
to  the  deck.  The  rest  of  us  might  have  been 
lucky  enough  not  to  have  noticed  him  as  the  boat 
went  down." 

"  We  ought  to  get  a  name  for  that  body  of 


"LAKE  SHIVER"  87 

water  up  there,"  said  Mr.  Gibbs,  as  he  was  writing 
out  his  report  of  the  day's  adventures.  "  Shall 
we  call  it  *  Lake  Clewe '  ?" 

"  Oh,  don't  do  that !"  exclaimed  Sammy  Block. 
"  Mr.  Clewe's  too  good  a  man  to  have  his  name 
tacked  on  to  that  hole.  If  you  want  to  name  it, 
why  don't  you  call  it  *  Lake  Shiver  '  ?" 

"  That  is  a  good  name,"  answered  Mr.  Gibbs ; 
and  so  it  was  called. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THEY   BELIEVE    IT   IS   THE    POLAR   SEA 

WITH  no  intention  of  ascending  again  into  any 
accidental  holes  in  the  ice  above  them,  the  voy 
agers  on  the  Dipsey  kept  on  their  uneventful  way, 
until,  upon  the  third  day  after  their  discovery  of 
the  lake,  the  electric  bell  attached  to  the  heavy 
lead  which  always  hung  suspended  below  the  ves 
sel,  rang  violently,  indicating  that  it  had  touched 
the  bottom.  This  sound  startled  everybody  on 
board.  In  all  their  submarine  experiences  they 
had  not  yet  sunk  down  low  enough  to  be  any 
where  near  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

Of  course  orders  were  given  to  ascend  immedi 
ately,  and  at  the  same  time  a  minor  search-light 
was  directed  upward  through  the  deck  skylight. 
To  the  horror  of  the  observers,  ice  could  plainly 
be  seen  stretching  above  them  like  an  irregular, 
gray  sky. 

Here  was  a  condition  of  things  which  had  not 
been  anticipated.  The  bottom  below  and  the  ice 
above  were  approaching  each  other.  Of  course 
it  might  have  been  some  promontory  of  the  rocks 
under  the  sea  against  which  their  telltale  lead 
had  struck ;  but  there  was  an  instrument  on 
board  for  taking  soundings  by  means  of  a  lead 
suspended  outside  and  a  wire  running  through  a 


THEY    BELIEVE    IT    IS   THE    POLAR    SEA  89 

water-proof  hole  in  the  bottom  of  the  vessel,  and 
when  the  Dipsey  had  risen  a  few  fathoms,  and 
was  progressing  very  slowly,  this  instrument  was 
used  at  frequent  intervals,  and  it  was  found  that 
the  electric  lead  had  not  touched  a  rock  project 
ing  upward,  and  that  the  bottom  was  almost 
level. 

Mr.  Gibbs's  instrument  gave  him  an  approxi 
mate  idea  of  the  vessel's  depth  in  the  water,  and 
the  dial  connected  with  the  sounding  apparatus 
told  him  hour  by  hour  that  the  distance  from  the 
bottom,  as  the  vessel  kept  forward  on  the  same 
plane,  was  becoming  less  and  less.  Consequently 
he  determined,  so  long  as  he  was  able  to  proceed, 
to  keep  the  Dipsey  as  near  as  possible  at  a  median 
distance  between  the  ice  and  the  bottom. 

This  was  an  anxious  time.  So  long  as  they  had 
felt  that  they  had  plenty  of  sea -room  the  little 
party  of  adventurers  had  not  yet  recognized  any 
danger  which  they  thought  sufficient  to  deter 
them  from  farther  progress ;  but  if  the  ice  and 
the  bottom  were  coming  together,  what  could 
they  do  ?  It  was  possible,  by  means  of  explosives 
they  carried,  to  shatter  the  ice  above  them ;  but 
action  of  this  kind  had  not  been  contemplated 
unless  they  should  find  themselves  at  the  pole 
and  still  shut  in  by  ice.  They  did  not  wish  to 
get  out  into  the  open  air  at  the  point  where  they 
found  themselves ;  and,  moreover,  it  would  not 
have  been  safe  to  explode  their  great  bombs  in 
such  shallow  water.  A  consultation  was  held, 
and  it  was  agreed  that  the  best  thing  to  do  was 
to  diverge  from  the  course  they  had  steadily 
maintained,  and  try  to  find  a  deeper  channel  lead- 


90  THE   GREAT   STONE    OF    SARDIS 

ing  to  the  north.  Accordingly  they  steered  east 
ward. 

It  was  not  long  before  they  found  that  they 
had  judged  wisely  ;  the  bottom  descended  far  out 
of  the  reach  of  their  electric  lead,  and  they  were 
enabled  to  keep  a  safe  distance  below  the  over 
hanging  ice. 

"I  feel  sure,"  said  Mr.  Gibbs,  "that  we  came 
near  running  against  some  outreaching  portion 
of  the  main  Western  Continent,  and  now  we  have 
got  to  look  out  for  the  foundations  of  Greenland's 
icy  mountains."  He  spoke  cheerily,  for  he  wished 
to  encourage  his  companions,  but  there  was  a  very 
anxious  look  upon  his  face  when  he  was  not  speak 
ing  to  any  one. 

The  next  day  every  one  was  anxious,  whether 
he  spoke  or  was  silent.  The  bottom  was  rising 
again,  and  the  Dipsey  was  obliged  to  sail  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  ice  above.  Between  two  dan 
gers,  constricted  and  trammelled  as  they  were, 
none  of  them  could  help  feeling  the  terrors  of  their 
position,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  encourag 
ing  messages  which  continually  came  to  them 
from  Sardis,  they  might  not  have  been  able  to 
keep  up  brave  hearts. 

After  two  days' of  most  cautious  progress,  dur 
ing  which  the  water  became  steadily  shallower 
and  shallower,  it  was  discovered  that  the  ice  above, 
which  they  were  now  obliged  to  approach  much 
more  closely  than  they  had  ever  done  before,  was 
comparatively  thin,  and  broken  in  many  places. 
Great  cracks  could  be  seen  in  it  here  and  there, 
and  movements  could  be  discerned  indicating 
that  it  was  a  floe,  or  floating  mass  of  ice.  If  that 


THEY    BELIEVE    IT    IS   THE    POLAR    SEA  9! 

were  the  case,  it  was  not  impossible  that  they 
were  now  nearing  the  edge  of  the  ice  under  which 
they  had  so  long  been  sailing,  and  that  beyond 
them  was  the  open  water.  If  they  could  reach 
that,  and  find  it  the  unobstructed  sea  which  was 
supposed  to  exist  at  this  end  of  the  earth's  axis, 
their  expedition  was  a  success.  At  that  moment 
they  were  less  than  one  hundred  miles  from  the 
pole. 

Whether  the  voyagers  on  the  Dipsey  were  more 
excited  when  the  probable  condition  of  their  situ 
ation  became  known  to  them,  or  whether  Roland 
Clewe  and  Margaret  Raleigh  in  the  office  of  the 
Works  at  Sardis  were  the  more  greatly  moved 
when  they  received  that  day's  report  from  the 
arctic  regions,  it  would  be  hard  to  say.  If  there 
should  be  room  enough  for  the  little  submarine 
vessel  to  safely  navigate  beneath  the  ice  which 
there  was  such  good  reason  to  believe  was  float 
ing  on  the  edge  of  the  body  of  water  they  had 
come  in  search  of,  and  on  whose  surface  they 
might  freely  sail,  what  then  was  likely  to  hinder 
them  from  reaching  the  pole?  The  presence  of 
ice  in  the  vicinity  of  that  extreme  northern  point 
was  feared  by  no  one  concerned  in  the  expedition, 
for  it  was  believed  that  the  rotary  motion  of  the 
earth  would  have  a  tendency  to  drive  it  away 
from  the  pole  by  centrifugal  force. 

The  little  thermometer-boat  which  during  the 
submarine  voyage  of  the  Dipsey  had  constantly 
preceded  her  to  give  warning  of  the  sunken  base 
of  some  great  iceberg,  was  now  drawn  in  close  to 
the  bow ;  there  was  so  much  ice  so  near  that  its 
warnings  were  constant,  and  therefore  unneeded. 


92  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP    SARDIS 

The  electric  lead-line  was  shortened  to  the  length 
of  a  few  fathoms,  and  even  then  it  sometimes 
suddenly  rang  out  its  alarm.  After  a  time  the 
bottom  of  the  sea  became  visible  through  the 
stout  glass  of  a  protected  window  near  the  bow, 
and  a  man  was  placed  there  to  report  what  he 
could  see  below  them. 

It  had  now  become  so  light  that  in  some  parts 
of  the  vessel  the  electric  lamps  were  turned  out. 
Fissures  of  considerable  size  appeared  in  the  ice 
above,  and  then,  to  the  great  excitement  of  every 
one,  the  vessel  slowly  moved  under  a  wide  space 
of  open  water  ;  but  the  ice  could  be  seen  ahead, 
and  she  did  not  rise.  The  bottom  came  no  nearer, 
and  the  Dipsey  moved  cautiously  on.  Nobody 
thought  of  eating  ;  they  did  not  talk  much,  but 
at  every  one  of  the  outlooks  there  were  eager  faces. 

At  last  they  saw  nothing  above  them  but  float 
ing  fragments  of  ice.  Still  they  kept  on,  until 
they  were  plainly  moving  below  the  surface  of 
open  water.  Then  Mr.  Gibbs  looked  at  Sammy. 

"  I  think  it  is  time  to  rise,"  said  he ;  and  Sam 
my  passed  the  word  that  the  Dipsey  was  going  up 
into  the  upper  air. 

When  the  little  craft,  so  long  submerged  in  the 
quiet  depths  of  the  Arctic  Sea,  had  risen  until 
she  rested  on  the  surface  of  the  water,  there  was 
no  general  desire,  as  there  had  been  when  she 
emerged  into  Lake  Shiver,  to  rush  upon  the  up 
per  deck.  Instead  of  that,  the  occupants  gath 
ered  together  and  looked  at  each  other  in  a  hesi 
tating  way,  as  if  they  were  afraid  to  go  out  and 
see  whether  they  were  really  in  an  open  sea,  or 
lying  in  some  small  ice-locked  body  of  water. 


THEY   BELIEVE    IT   IS   THE    POLAR    SEA  93 

Mr.  Gibbs  was  very  pale. 

"  My  friends,"  said  he,  "  we  are  going  on  deck 
to  find  out  whether  or  not  we  have  reached  the 
open  polar  sea,  but  we  must  not  be  excited,  and 
we  must  not  jump  to  hurried  conclusions  ;  we 
may  have  found  what  we  are  in  search  of,  and 
we  may  not  have  found  it  yet.  But  we  will  go 
up  and  look  out  upon  the  polar  world  as  far  as 
we  can  see  it,  and  we  shall  not  decide  upon 
this  thing  or  that  until  we  have  thoroughly 
studied  the  whole  situation.  The  engines  are 
stopped,  and  every  one  may  go  up,  but  I  ad 
vise  you  all  to  put  on  your  warmest  clothes. 
We  should  remember  our  experience  at  Lake 
Shiver." 

"  It  wouldn't  be  a  bad  idea,"  said  Sammy  Block, 
"  to  throw  out  a  lot  of  tarpaulins  to  stand  on,  so 
that  none  of  us  will  get  frozen  to  the  wet  deck,  as 
happened  before." 

When  the  hatch  was  opened  a  man  with  a  black 
beard  pushed  himself  forward  towards  the  com- 
panionway. 

"  Keep  back  here,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Marcy,  clapping 
his  hand  upon  the  man's  shoulder. 

"  I  want  to  be  ready  to  spread  the  tarpaulins, 
sir,"  said  he,  with  a  wriggling  motion,  as  if  he 
would  free  himself. 

"  You  want  to  be  the  first  to  see  the  polar  sea, 
that  is  my  opinion,"  said  Mr.  Marcy  ;  "  but  you 
keep  back  there  where  you  belong."  And  with 
that  he  gave  the  eager  Rovinski  a  staggering 
push  to  the  rear. 

Five  minutes  afterwards  Margaret  Raleigh  and 
Roland  Clewe,  sitting  close  together  by  the  tele- 


94  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

graph  instrument  in  the  Works  at  Sardis,  received 
the  following  message  : 

' '  We  have  risen  to  the  surface  of  what  we  believe  to  be  the 
open  polar  sea.  Everybody  is  on  deck  but  me.  It  is  very  cold, 
and  a  wind  is  blowing.  Off  to  our  left  there  are  high  mountains, 
stretching  westward  as  far  as  we  can  see.  They  are  all  snow 
and  ice,  but  they  look  blue  and  green  and  beautiful.  From 
these  mountains  there  comes  this  way  a  long  cape,  with  a  little 
mountain  at  the  end  of  it.  Mr.  Gibbs  says  this  mountain,  which 
is  about  twenty  miles  away,  must  be  just  about  between  us  and 
the  pole,  but  it  does  not  cut  us  off.  Far  out  to  the  right,  as  far 
as  we  can  see,  there  is  open  water  shining  in  the  sun,  so  that  we 
can  sail  around  the  cape.  On  the  right  and  behind  us,  south 
ward,  are  everlasting  plains  of  snow  and  ice,  which  we  have 
just  come  from  under.  They  are  so  white  that  it  dazzles  our 
eyes  to  look  at  them.  In  some  places  they  are  smooth,  and  in 
some  places  they  are  tumbled  up.  On  the  very  edge  of  the  sky, 
in  that  direction,  there  are  more  mountains.  There  are  no  ani 
mals  or  people  anywhere.  It  is  very  cold,  even  inside  the  vessel. 
My  fingers  are  stiff.  Now  that  we  are  out  on  the  water,  in 
regular  shipshape,  Captain  Jim  Hubbell  has  taken  command. 
We  are  going  to  cruise  northward  as  soon  as  we  can  get  things 
regulated  for  outside  sailing. 

"SAMUEL  BLOCK." 


CHAPTER   XII 

CAPTAIN    HUBBELL   TAKES    COMMAND 

IT  was  a  high  -  spirited  and  joyous  party  that 
the  Dipsey  now  carried  ;  not  one  of  them  doubted 
that  they  had  emerged  from  under  the  ice  into 
the  polar  sea.  To  the  northeast  they  could  see 
its  waves  shining  and  glistening  all  the  way  to 
the  horizon,  and  they  believed  that  beyond  the 
cape  in  front  of  them  these  waters  shone  and 
glistened  to  the  very  north.  They  breathed  the 
polar  air,  which,  as  they  became  used  to  it,  was 
exhilarating  and  enlivening,  and  they  basked  in 
the  sunshine,  which,  although  it  did  not  warm 
their  bodies  very  much,  cheered  and  brightened  ^ 
their  souls.  But  what  made  them  happier  than 
anything  else  was  the  thought  that  they  would 
soon  start  direct  for  the  pole,  on  top  of  the  water, 
and  with  nothing  in  the  way. 

When  Captain  Jim  Hubbell  took  command  of 
the  Dipsey  the  state  of  affairs  on  that  vessel  un 
derwent  a  great  change.  He  was  sharp,  exact, 
and  severe  ;  he  appreciated  the  dignity  of  his  po 
sition,  and  he  wished  to  let  everybody  see  that 
he  did  so.  The  men  on  board  who  had  previous 
ly  been  workmen  now  became  sailors  —  at  least 
in  the  eyes  of  Captain  Hubbell.  He  did  not  know 
much  about  the  work  that  they  had  been  in  the 


96  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

habit  of  doing,  but  he  intended  to  teach  them  the 
duties  of  sailors  just  as  soon  as  he  could  find  any 
such  duties  for  them  to  perform.  He  walked 
about  the  deck  with  an  important  air,  and  looked 
for  something  about  which  he  might  give  orders. 
There  were  no  masts  or  spars  or  shrouds  or  sheets, 
but  there  were  tarpaulins  on  the  deck,  and  these 
were  soon  arranged  in  seamanlike  fashion.  A 
compass  was  rigged  up  on  deck,  and  Captain 
Hubbell  put  himself  into  communication  with 
the  electric  steersman. 

It  was  morning  when  the  Dipsey  emerged  from 
the  sea,  although  day  and  night  were  equally 
bright  at  that  season,  and  at  twelve  o'clock  Cap 
tain  Hubbell  took  an  observation,  assisted  by 
Sammy.  The  result  was  as  follows :  longitude, 
69°  30' ;  latitude,  88°  42'. 

"  It  strikes  me,"  said  Captain  James  Hubbell, 
"that  that  latitude  goes  over  anything  ever  set 
down  by  any  skipper,  ancient  or  modern." 

"  I  should  say  so,"  answered  Sammy.  "  But 
that  record  won't  be  anything  compared  to  what 
we  are  goin'  to  set  down." 

Work  went  on  very  rapidly,  in  order  to  get  the 
Dipsey  into  regular  nautical  condition,  and  al 
though  it  was  out  of  his  line,  Captain  Hubbell 
made  it  a  point  to  direct  as  much  of  it  as  he 
could.  The  electric  gills  were  packed  as  close 
to  the  side  of  the  vessel  as  possible,  and  the 
various  contrivances  for  heating  and  ventila 
tion  when  sailing  in  the  open  air  were  put  into 
working  order.  At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
our  party  started  to  round  the  icy  promontory 
ahead  of  them,  encouraged  by  a  most  hearty 


CAPTAIN    HUBBELL   TAKES    COMMAND  97 

and  soul-insjpinng  message  from  the  hills  of  New 
Jerseyl 

"  It's  all  very  fine,"  said  Sarah  Block  to  her 
husband,  "  for  everybody  on  board  to  be  talkin' 
about  what  a  splendid  thing  it  is  to  be  sailin'  on 
the  surface  of  the  sea,  in  the  bright  and  beauti 
ful  air,  but  I  must  say  that  I  like  a  ship  to  keep 
quiet  when  I  am  on  board  of  her.  I  had  a  pretty 
bad  time  when  I  was  comin'  up  on  the  Go  Lightly, 
but  she  was  big  and  didn't  wabble  like  this  little 
thing.  We  went  along  beautifully  when  we  were 
under  the  water,  with  the  floor  just  as  level  as  if 
we  were  at  home  in  a  house,  and  now  I  am  not 
feelin'  anything  like  as  well  as  I  have  been.  For 
my  part,  I  think  it  would  be  a  great  deal  better 
to  sink  down  again  and  go  the  rest  of  the  way 
under  the  water.  I  am  sure  we  found  it  very 
comfortable,  and  a  great  deal  warmer." 

Sammy  laughed. 

"  Oh,  that  would  not  do  at  all,"  he  said.  "  You 
can't  expect  the  people  on  board  this  vessel  to 
be  willin'  to  scoop  along  under  the  water  when 
they  have  got  a  chance  of  sailin'  like  Chris 
tians  in  the  open  air.  It's  the  sudden  change 
that  troubles  you,  Sarah  ;  you'll  soon  get  over 
it." 

But  Sarah  was  not  satisfied.  The  Dipsey  rolled 
a  good  deal,  and  the  good  woman  was  frequently 
obliged  to  stop  and  steady  herself  when  crossing 
the  little  cabin. 

"  I  feel,"  said  she,  "  as  if  I  had  had  a  Christmas 
dinner  yesterday  and  somebody  else  had  made 
the  pies." 

The  dissatisfied  condition  of  Mrs.  Block  had  a 
7 


98  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

cheering  influence  upon  Captain  Hubbell  when 
he  heard  of  it. 

"By  George!"  said  he,  "this  seems  like  good 
old  times.  When  I  was  young  and  there  was 
women  on  board,  they  all  got  a  little  sea  -  sick  ; 
but  nowadays,  with  these  ball-and-socket  ships, 
you  never  hear  of  that  sort  of  thing.  A  sea-sick 
woman  is  the  most  natural  thing  I  have  struck 
yet  on  this  cruise." 

Mrs.  Block's  uneasiness,  however,  did  not  last 
very  long.  A  few  electric  capsules  of  half  an 
alterative  volt  each  soon  relieved  her  ;  but  her 
mind  was  still  out  of  order  ;  she  was  not  satisfied. 
She  had  accustomed  herself  to  submerged  con 
ditions,  and  ordinary  voyaging  was  very  different. 

"  It  wouldn't  surprise  me,"  she  said,  "  if  we 
should  find  that  there  wasn't  any  pole  ;  that's 
about  the  way  these  things  generally  turn  out." 

In  a  few  hours  the  Dipsey  had  rounded  the 
cape,  keeping  well  off  shore.  In  front  was  a  clear 
sweep  of  unobstructed  water.  With  their  tele 
scopes  they  could  see  nothing  on  the  horizon 
which  indicated  the  presence  of  land.  If  the  sea 
should  stretch  out  before  them,  as  they  hoped 
and  expected,  a  sail  of  about  seventy  miles  ought 
to  bring  them  to  the  pole.  The  Dipsey  did  not 
go  at  full  speed  ;  there  was  no  hurry,  and  as  he 
was  in  absolutely  unknown  waters,  Captain  Hub- 
bell  wished  to  take  no  risks  of  sunken  reefs  or 
barely  submerged  islands.  Soundings  were  fre 
quent,  and  they  found  that  the  polar  sea  —  at 
least  that  part  over  which  they  were  sailing  — 
was  a  comparatively  shallow  body  of  water. 

Before  they  left  Sardis,  preparations  had  been 


CAPTAIN    HUBBELL   TAKES   COMMAND  99 

made  for  an  appropriate  and  permanent  designa 
tion  of  the  exact  position  of  the  northern  end  of 
the  earth's  axis.  If  this  should  be  discovered  to 
be  on  solid  land,  there  was  a  great  iron  standard, 
or  column,  on  board,  in  detached  parts,  with  all 
appliances  for  setting  it  up  firmly  in  the  rocks 
or  earth  or  ice  ;  but  if  the  end  of  the  said  axis 
should  be  found  to  be  covered  by  water  of  not 
too  great  depth,  a  buoy  had  been  provided  which 
should  be  anchored  upon  the  polar  point. 

This  buoy  was  a  large  hollow,  aluminium  globe, 
from  which  a  tall  steel  flag-post  projected  up 
ward  to  a  considerable  height,  bearing  a  light 
weather-vane,  which,  when  the  buoy  should  be  in 
its  intended  position,  would  always  point  south 
ward,  no  matter  which  way  the  wind  might  blow. 
This  great  buoy  contained  various  appropriate 
articles,  which  had  been  hermetically  sealed  up 
in  it  before  it  left  Sardis,  where  it  was  manu 
factured.  All  the  documents,  books,  coins,  and 
other  articles  which  are  usually  placed  in  the 
corner  -  stones  of  important  buildings  were  put 
in  this,  together  with  the  names  of  the  persons 
who  had  gone  on  this  perilous  expedition  and 
those  who  had  been  its  projectors  and  promot 
ers.  More  than  this,  there  was  an  appropriate 
inscription  deeply  cut  into  the  metal  on  the  up 
per  part  of  the  buoy,  with  a  space  left  for  the 
date  of  the  discovery,  should  it  ever  take  place. 

But  the  mere  ceremony  of  anchoring  a  buoy 
at  the  exact  position  of  the  pole  was  not  enough 
to  satisfy  the  conscientious  ambition  of  Mr. 
Gibbs.  He  had  ^olrre^upon  this  perilous  voyage 
with  the  earnest  intention  of  doing  his  duty  in 


100  THE    GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

all  respects,  while  endeavoring  to  make  the  great 
discovery  of  the  age  ;  and  if  that  discovery 
should  be  made,  he  believed  that  his  country 
should  share  in  the  glory  and  in  the  material  ad 
vantage,  whatever  that  might  be,  of  the  achieve 
ment.  Consequently  it  was  his  opinion  that  if 
the  pole  should  be  discovered,  the  discoverers 
should  take  possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  their 
country.  Every  one  on  board — except  Sarah 
Block,  who  had  something  to  say  about  the  old 
proverb  concerning  the  counting  of  chickens 
before  they  are  hatched  —  thought  this  a  good 
idea,  and  when  the  plan  was  submitted  to  Mr. 
Clewe  and  Mrs.  Raleigh,  they  heartily  approved. 

Preparations  were  now  made  to  take  posses 
sion  of  the  pole  if  they  should  reach  it  on  the 
water.  On  the  after-part  of  the  deck  a  ring  about 
three  feet  in  diameter  was  marked,  and  it  was  ar 
ranged  that  when  they  had  ascertained,  by  the 
most  accurate  observations  and  calculations,  the 
exact  position  of  the  pole,  they  would  so  guide 
their  vessel  that  this  ring  should  be  as  nearly  as 
possible  directly  over  it.  Then  one  of  the  party 
should  step  inside  of  the  ring  and  take  posses 
sion  of  the  pole.  After  this  the  buoy  would  be 
anchored,  and  their  intended  scientific  observa 
tions  and  explorations  would  proceed. 

It  was  supposed  both  on  the  Dipsey  and  at 
Sardis  that  Mr.  Gibbs  would  assume  the  honor  of 
this  act  of  taking  possession,  but  that  gentleman 
declined  to  do  so.  He  considered  that  he  would 
no  more  discover  the  pole,  if  they  should  reach  it, 
than  would  his  companions  ;  and  he  also  believed 
that,  from  a  broad  point  of  view,  Mr.  Roland 


CAPTAIN    HUBBELL    '' 

Clewe  was  the  real  discoverer.  Consequently  he 
considered  that  the  direct  representative  of  the 
interests  of  Mr.  Clewe  should  take  possession,  and 
it  was  decided  that  Samuel  Block  should  add  the 
north  pole  to  the  territory  of  his  native  land. 

When  this  had  been  settled,  a  very  great  change 
came  over  the  mind  of  Sarah  Block.  That  her 
husband  should  be  the  man  to  do  this  great  thing 
filled  her  with  pride  and  alert  enthusiasm. 

"  Sammy,"  she  exclaimed,  "  when  you  are  doin' 
that,  you  will  be  the  greatest  man  in  this  world, 
and  you  will  stand  at  the  top  of  everything." 

"  Suppose  there  should  be  a  feller  standin'  on 
the  south  pole,"  said  Sammy,  "  wouldn't  he  have 
the  same  right  to  say  that  he  was  on  top  of  every 
thing  ?" 

"  No,"  said  Sarah,  sharply.  "  The  way  I  look 
at  it,  the  north  pole  is  above  and  the  south  pole 
is  below ;  but  there  ain't  any  other  feller  down 
there,  so  we  needn't  talk  about  it.  And  now, 
Sammy,  if  you  are  goin'  to  take  possession  of  the 
pole,  you  ought  to  put  on  your  best  clothes.  For 
one  thing,  you  should  wear  a  pair  of  those  new 
red  flannel  socks  that  you  haven't  had  on  yet ;  it 
will  be  a  good  way  to  christen  'em.  Everything 
on  you  ought  to  be  perfectly  fresh  and  clean, 
and  just  as  nice  as  you've  got.  This  will  be 
the  first  time  that  anybody  ever  took  posses 
sion  of  a  pole,  and  you  ought  to  look  your  very 
best.  I  would  ask  you  to  shave,  because  you 
would  look  better  that  way,  but  I  suppose  if  you 
took  off  your  beard  you  would  take  cold  in  your 
jaws.  And  I  want  you  to  stand  up  straight,  and 
talk  as  long  about  it  as  you  can.  You  are  too 


•  1,Q<2: «'       THk  'GREAT  STONE  OF  SARDIS 

much  given  to  cuttin'  off  ceremonies  mighty 
short,  as  I  remember  was  the  case  when  you 
were  statin'  your  'pinions  about  our  weddin' ; 
but  I  had  my  way  then,  and  I  want  to  have  it 
now.  You  are  goin'  to  be  a  big  man,  Sammy, 
and  your  name  will  go  all  over  the  world,  so  you 
must  screw  yourself  up  to  as  much  eminence  as 
you  think  you  can  stand." 

Sammy  laughed.  "  Well,  I  will  do  what  I 
can,"  said  he  ;  "  that  is,  providin'  our  chickens 
are  hatched." 

"  Oh,  they'll  come  out  all  right,"  said  Sarah. 
"  I  haven't  the  least  doubt  of  it,  now  that  you 
are  to  be  the  chief  figure  in  the  hatchin'." 

Shortly  after  the  ordinary  hour  for  rising,  an 
order  was  issued  by  Captain  Hubbell,  and  en 
forced  by  Samuel  Block,  that  no  one  should  be 
allowed  to  come  on  deck  who  had  not  eaten 
breakfast.  There  were  those  on  board  that  ves 
sel  who  would  have  stayed  on  deck  during  all  the 
hours  which  should  have  been  devoted  to  sleep 
ing,  had  it  not  been  so  cold.  There  would  prob 
ably  be  nothing  to  see  when  they  reached  the 
pole,  but  they  wanted  to  be  on  hand,  that  they 
might  see  for  themselves  that  there  was  nothing 
to  see. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

LONGITUDE    EVERYTHING 

THE  sun  was  as  high  in  the  polar  heavens  as  it 
ever  rises  in  that  part  of  the  world.  Captain 
Hubbell  stood  on  the  deck  of  the  Dipsey  with  his 
quadrant  in  hand  to  take  an  observation.  The 
engines  had  been  stopped,  and  nearly  everybody 
on  the  vessel  now  surrounded  him. 

"  Longitude  everything,"  said  Captain  James 
Hubbell,  "  latitude  ninety,  which  is  as  near  as  I 
can  make  it  out." 

"  My  friends,"  said  Mr.  Gibbs,  looking  about 
him,  "  we  have  found  the  pole." 

And  at  these  words  every  head  was  uncovered. 

For  some  moments  no  one  spoke  ;  but  there 
was  a  look  upon  the  faces  of  most  of  the  party 
which  expressed  a  feeling  which  was  voiced  by 
Sarah  Block. 

"And  yet,"  said  she,  speaking  in  a  low  tone, 
"  there's  nothing  to  see,  after  all !" 

Captain  Hubbell's  observations  and  calcula 
tions,  although  accurate  enough  for  all  ordinary 
nautical  purposes,  were  not  sufficiently  precise 
to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  present  occasion, 
and  Mr.  Gibbs  and  the  electricians  began  a  series 
of  experiments  to  determine  the  exact  position 
of  the  true  pole. 


104  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

The  vessel  was  now  steered  this  way  and  that, 
sometimes  backed,  and  then  sent  forward  again. 
After  about  an  hour  of  this  zigzag  work  Mr. 
Gibbs  ordered  the  engine  stopped. 

"  Now,"  said  he,  "  the  ring  on  the  deck  is  ex 
actly  over  the  pole,  and  we  may  prepare  to  take 
possession." 

At  these  words  Samuel  Block  disappeared  be 
low,  followed  by  his  wife. 

"  That  was  an  odd  expression  of  yours,  Captain 
Hubbell,"  said  Mr.  Gibbs,  "when  you  said  we 
had  reached  longitude  everything.  It  is  correct, 
of  course,  but  it  had  not  struck  me  in  that  light." 

"  Of  course  it  is  correct,"  said  Captain  Hubbell. 
"  The  end  of  every  line  of  longitude  is  right  here 
in  a  bunch.  If  you  were  a  bird,  you  could  choose 
one  of  'em  and  fly  down  along  it  to  Washington 
or  Greenwich  or  any  other  point  you  pleased. 
Longitude  everything  is  what  it  is  ;  we've  got  the 
whole  of  'em  right  under  us." 

Now  Samuel  Block  came  on  deck,  where  every 
body  else  on  board  soon  gathered.  With  a  furled 
flag  in  his  hand,  dressed  in  his  best  and  cleanest 
clothes,  and  with  a  large  fur  cloak  thrown  over 
his  shoulders,  Mr  Block  advanced  towards  the 
ring  on  the  deck,  near  the  compass. 

But  he  was  yet  several  yards  from  this  point 
when  a  black  figure,  crouching  close  to  the  deck, 
issued  from  among  the  men,  a  little  in  the  rear 
of  the  party,  and  made  a  dash  towards  the  ring. 
It  was  the  Pole,  Rovinski,  who  had  been  standing 
quivering  with  excitement,  waiting  for  this  su 
preme  moment.  But  almost  at  the  same  instant 
there  sprang  from  the  side  of  Mr.  Gibbs  another 


LONGITUDE    EVERYTHING  105 

figure,  with  a  face  livid  with  agitation.  This  was 
Mr.  Marcy,  who  had  noticed  the  foreigner's  ex 
citement  and  had  been  watching  him.  Like  a 
stone  from  a  catapult,  Mr.  Marcy  rushed  towards 
Rovinski,  taking  a  course  diagonal  to  that  of  the 
latter,  and,  striking  him  with  tremendous  force 
just  before  he  reached  the  ring,  he  threw  him 
against  the  rail  with  such  violence  that  the  mo 
mentum  given  to  his  head  and  body  carried  them 
completely  over  it,  and  his  legs  following,  the 
man  went  headlong  into  the  sea. 

Instantly  there  was  a  shout  of  horror.  Sarah 
Block  screamed  violently,  and  her  husband  ex 
claimed  :  "  That  infernal  Pole !  He  has  gone 
down  to  the  pole,  and  I  hope  he  may  stay  there  !" 

"  What  does  all  this  mean,  Mr.  Marcy  ?"  roared 
Captain  Hubbell ;  "  and  why  did  you  throw  him 
overboard  ?" 

"  Never  mind  now,"  cried  Sammy,  his  voice 
rising  above  the  confusion.  "  I  will  tell  you  all 
about  it.  I  see  what  he  was  up  to.  He  wanted 
to  take  possession  of  the  pole  in  his  own  beastly 
name,  most  likely." 

"I  don't  understand  a  word  of  all  this,"  ex 
claimed  Mr.  Gibbs.  "  But  there  is  the  man  ;  he 
has  risen  to  the  surface." 

"  Shall  we  let  him  sink,"  cried  Sammy,  "  or  haul 
him  aboard  ?" 

"  Let  the  man  sink  !"  yelled  Captain  Hubbell. 
"What  do  you  mean,  sir?" 

"  Well,  I  suppose  it  wouldn't  do,"  said  Sammy, 
"and  we  must  get  him  aboard." 

Captain  Hubbell  roared  out  orders  to  throw 
out  life-preservers  and  lower  a  boat ;  but,  remem- 


106  THE   GREAT    STONE    OF   SARDIS 

bering  that  he  was  not  on  board  a  vessel  of  the 
olden  times,  he  changed  the  order  and  com 
manded  that  a  patent  boat-hook  be  used  upon 
the  man  in  the  water. 

The  end  of  this  boat-hook,  which  could  be  shot 
out  like  a  fishing-rod,  was  hooked  into  Rovinski's 
clothes,  and  he  was  pulled  to  the  vessel.  Then  a 
rope  was  lowered,  and  he  was  hauled  on  board, 
shivering  and  shaking. 

"  Take  him  below  and  put  him  in  irons,"  cried 
Sammy. 

"Mr.  Block,"  said  Captain  Hubbell,  "I  want 
you  to  understand  that  I  am  skipper  of  this  ves 
sel,  and  that  I  am  to  give  orders.  I  don't  know 
anything  about  this  man  ;  but  do  you  want  him 
put  in  irons  ?" 

"  I  do,"  said  Sammy,  "  for  the  present." 

"Take  that  man  below  and  put  him  in  irons  !" 
roared  Captain  Hubbell. 

"And  give  him  some  dry  clothes,"  added  Sarah 
Block. 

When  the  confusion  consequent  upon  the  inci 
dent  had  subsided  there  was  a  general  desire  not 
to  delay  for  a  moment  the  actual  act  of  taking 
legal  possession  of  the  pole  they  had  discovered. 

Sammy  now  advanced,  his  fur  cap  in  one  hand 
and  his  flag  in  the  other,  and  took  his  position 
in  the  centre  of  the  circle.  For  a  few  moments 
he  did  not  speak,  but  turned  slowly  around,  as  if 
desirous  of  availing  himself  of  the  hitherto  un 
known  privilege  of  looking  southward  in  every 
direction. 

"  I'm  glad  he  remembers  what  I  told  him,"  said 
Sarah.  "  He's  making  it  last  as  long  as  he  can." 


LONGITUDE  EVERYTHING          107 

"As  the  representative  of  Roland  Clewe,  Esq.," 
said  Samuel,  deliberately  and  distinctly,  "  I  take 
possession  of  the  north  pole  of  this  earth  in  the 
name  of  United  North  America."  With  these 
words  he  unfurled  his  flag,  with  its  broad  red 
and  white  stripes,  and  its  seven  great  stars  in  the 
field  of  blue,  and  stuck  the  sharp  end  of  the  flag 
staff  into  the  deck  in  the  centre  of  the  circle.* 

"  Now,"  said  he  to  his  companions,  "  this  pole 
is  ours,  and  if  anybody  ever  comes  into  this  sea 
from  Russia,  or  Iceland,  or  any  other  place,  they 
will  find  the  north  pole  has  been  pre-empted." 
At  this  three  hearty  cheers  were  given  by  the  as 
sembled  company,  who  thereupon  put  on  their 
hats. 

The  rest  of  that  day  and  part  of  the  next  were 
spent  in  taking  soundings,  and  very  curious  and 
surprising  results  were  obtained.  The  electric 
lead,  which  rang  the  instant  it  touched  bottom, 
showed  that  the  sea  immediately  over  the  pole 
was  comparatively  shallow,  while  in  every  direc 
tion  from  this  point  the  depth  increased  rapidly. 
Many  interesting  experiments  were  made,  which 
determined  the  character  of  the  bottom  and  the 
varied  deposits  thereupon,  but  the  most  impor 
tant  result  of  the  work  of  Mr.  Gibbs  and  his  asso 
ciates  was  the  discovery  of  the  formation  of  the 
extreme  northern  portion  of  the  earth.  The  rock- 

*  It  must  be  understood  that  at  this  time  the  seven  great 
countries  of  North  America  —  Greenland,  Norland  (formerly 
British  America,  British  Columbia,  and  Alaska),  Canada,  the 
United  States,  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  West  Indies — were 
united  under  one  confederated  government,  and  had  one  flag, 
a  modification  of  the  banner  of  the  dominant  nation. 


I08  THE    GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

bed  of  the  sea  was  found  to  be  of  the  shape  of  a 
flattened  cone,  regularly  sloping  off  from  the  polar 
point. 

This  peculiar  form  of  the  solid  portion  of  the 
earth  at  the  pole  was  occasioned,  Mr.  Gibbs  be 
lieved,  by  the  rotary  motion  of  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  which  moved  much  more  rapidly  than  the 
water  above  it,  thus  gradually  wearing  itself  away, 
and  giving  to  our  earth  that  depression  at  the 
poles  which  has  been  so  long  known  to  geogra 
phers. 

Day  after  day  the  experiments  went  on  ;  but 
Mr.  Gibbs  and  his  associates  were  extremely  in 
terested  in  what  they  were  doing ;  some  of  the 
rest  of  the  party  began  to  get  a  little  tired  of  the 
monotony.  There  was  absolutely  nothing  to  see 
except  water  and  sky ;  and  although  the  temper 
ature  was  frequently  some  degrees  above  freez 
ing,  and  became  sometimes  quite  pleasant  as  they 
gradually  grew  accustomed  to  the  outer  arctic  at 
mosphere,  those  who  had  no  particular  occupation 
to  divert  their  minds  made  frequent  complaints 
of  the  cold.  There  were  occasional  snow-storms, 
but  these  did  not  last  long,  and  as  a  rule  the 
skies  were  clear. 

"  But  think,  Sarah,"  said  Samuel  Block,  in  an 
swer  to  some  of  her  complaints,  "what  it  would 
be  if  this  were  winter,  and,  instead  of  being  light 
all  the  time,  it  was  dark,  with  the  mercury  'way 
down  at  the  bottom  of  the  thermometer  !" 

"I  don't  intend  to  think  of  it  at  all,"  replied 
Sarah,  sharply.  "  Do  you  suppose  I  am  goin'  to 
consent  to  stay  here  until  the  everlastin'  night 
comes  on?  If  that  happened,  I  would  simply 


LONGITUDE  EVERYTHING          109 

stretch  myself  out  and  die.  It's  bad  enough  as 
it  is ;  but  when  I  look  out  on  the  sun,  and  think 
that  it  is  the  same  sun  that  is  shinin'  on  Sardis, 
and  on  the  house  which  I  hope  we  are  goin'  to 
have  when  we  get  back,  I  feel  as  if  there  was 
somethin'  up  here  besides  you,  Sammy,  that  I'm 
accustomed  to.  If  it  was  not  for  you  and  the 
sun,  I  could  not  get  along  at  all ;  but  if  the  sun's 
gone,  I  don't  think  you  will  be  enough.  I  wish 
they  would  plant  that  corner-stone  buoy  and  let 
us  be  off." 

But  by  far  the  most  dissatisfied  person  on  board 
was  the  Pole,  Rovinski.  He  was  chained  to  the 
floor  in  the  hold,  and  could  see  nothing ;  nor 
could  he  find  out  anything.  Sammy  had  ex 
plained  his  character  and  probable  intentions  to 
Captain  Hubbell,  who  had  thereupon  delivered 
to  Mr.  Block  a  very  severe  lecture  for  not  telling 
him  before. 

"If  I've  got  a  scoundrel  on  board  I  want  to 
know  it,  and  I  hope  this  sort  of  thing  won't  hap 
pen  again,  Mr.  Block." 

"  I  don't  see  how  it  can,"  answered  Sammy  ; 
"  and  I  must  admit  I  ought  to  have  told  you  as 
soon  as  you  took  command  ;  but  people  don't  al 
ways  do  all  they  ought  to  do ;  and,  as  for  tellin' 
Mr.  Gibbs,  I  would  not  do  that,  for  his  jpind.  is  r 
rigged  on  a  hair  -  spring  balance  anyway ;  it 
wouldn't  do  to  upset  him." 

"  And  what  are  we  goin'  to  do  with  the  feller  ?" 
said  the  captain.  "  Now  that  I  know  what  this 
Pole  is,  I  wish  I  had  let  him  go  down  to  the  other 
pole  and  stay  there." 

"I  thought  so  at  first,"  said  Sammy;  "but  I'm 


110  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP    SARDIS 

glad  he  didn't ;  I'd  hate  to  think  of  our  glorious 
pole  with  that  thing  floppin'  on  it." 

At  last  all  was  ready  to  anchor  the  great  buoy, 
and  preparations  were  in  progress  for  this  impor 
tant  event,  when  everybody  was  startled  by  a 
shout  from  Mr.  Marcy. 

"  Hello  !"  he  cried.     "  What's  that  ?    A  sail  ?" 

"  Where  away  ?"  shouted  the  captain. 

"  To  the  south,"  replied  Mr.  Marcy.  And  in 
stantly  everybody  was  looking  in  opposite  direc 
tions.  But  Mr.  Marcy's  outstretched  arm  soon 
indicated  to  all  the  position  of  the  cause  of  his 
outcry.  It  was  a  black  spot  clearly  visible  upon 
the  surface  of  the  sea,  and  apparently  about  two 
miles  away.  Quickly  Captain  Hubbell  had  his 
glass  directed  upon  it,  and  the  next  moment  he 
gave  a  loud  cry. 

"  It's  a  whale  !"  he  shouted.  "  There's  whales 
in  this  polar  sea  !" 

"  I  thought  you  said  whales  were  extinct,"  cried 
Sammy. 

"  So  I  did,"  replied  the  captain.  "  And  so  they 
are  in  all  Christian  waters.  Who  ever  could  have 
imagined  that  we  would  have  found  'em  here  ?" 

Sarah  Block  was  so  frightened  when  she  found 
there  was  a  whale  in  the  same  water  in  which  the 
Dipscy  floated  that  she  immediately  hurried  be 
low,  with  an  indistinct  idea  of  putting  on  her 
things.  In  such  a  case  as  this,  it  was  time  for 
her  to  leave.  But  soon  recognizing  the  state  of 
affairs,  she  sat  down  in  a  chair,  threw  a  shawl 
over  her  head,  and  waited  for  the  awful  bump. 

"  Fortunately  whales  are  soft,"  she  said  to  hen 
self  over  and  over  again. 


LONGITUDE    EVERYTHING  III 

No  one  now  thought  of  buoys.  Every  eye  on 
deck  was  fixed  upon  the  exposed  back  of  the 
whale,  and  everybody  speedily  agreed  that  it  was 
coming  nearer  to  them.  It  did  come  nearer  and 
nearer,  and  at  one  time  it  raised  its  head  as  if  it 
were  endeavoring  to  look  over  the  water  at  the 
strange  object  which  had  come  into  those  seas. 
Then  suddenly  it  tossed  its  tail  high  into  the  air 
and  sank  out  of  sight. 

"It's  a  right -whale!"  cried  Captain  Hubbell. 
"  There's  whales  in  this  sea  !  Let's  get  through 
this  buoy  business  and  go  cruisin'  after  'em." 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  excited  talk  about 
the  appearance  of  the  whale,  but  this  was  not  al 
lowed  to  interfere  with  the  business  in  hand.  A 
chain,  not  very  heavy  but  of  enormous  strength, 
and  of  sufficient  length  to  reach  the  bottom  and 
give  plenty  of  play,  was  attached  to  an  anchor  of 
a  peculiar  kind.  It  was  very  large  and  heavy, 
made  of  iron,  and  shaped  something  like  a  cuttle 
fish,  with  many  arms  which  would  cling  to  the 
bottom  if  any  force  were  exerted  to  move  the 
anchor.  The  other  end  of  the  chain  was  attached 
to  the  lower  part  of  the  buoy,  and  with  powerful 
cranes  the  anchor  was  hoisted  on  deck,  and  when 
everything  had  been  made  ready  the  buoy,  which 
had  had  the  proper  date  cut  upon  it,  was  lowered 
into  the  water.  Then  the  great  anchor  was  drop 
ped  into  the  sea,  as  nearly  as  possible  over  the 
pole. 

The  sudden  rush  downward  of  the  anchor  and 
the  chain  caused  the  buoy  to  dip  into  the  sea  as 
if  it  were  about  to  sink  out  of  sight,  but  in  a  few 
moments  it  rose  again,  and  the  great  sphere,  half- 


112  THE   GREAT    STONE    OP    SARDIS 

way  out  of  the  water,  floated  proudly  upon  the 
surface  of  the  polar  sea. 

Then  came  a  great  cheer,  and  Mrs.  Block — who, 
having  been  assured  that  the  whale  had  entirely 
disappeared,  had  come  on  deck  —  turned  to  her 
husband  and  remarked  :  "  Now,  Sammy,  is  there 
any  earthly  reason  why  we  should  not  turn  right 
around  and  go  straight  home  ?  The  pole's  found, 
and  the  place  is  marked,  and  what  more  is  there 
for  us  to  do  ?" 

But  before  her  husband  could  answer  her,  Cap 
tain  Hubbell  lifted  up  his  voice,  which  was  full  of 
spirit  and  enthusiasm. 

"  Messmates  !"  he  cried,  "  we  have  touched  at  the 
pole,  and  we  have  anchored  the  buoy,  and  now  let 
us  go  whalin'.  It's  thirty  years  since  I  saw  one 
of  them  fish,  and  I  never  expected  in  all  my  born 
days  I'd  go  a-whalin'." 

The  rest  of  the  company  on  the  Dipsey  took  no 
very  great  interest  in  the  whaling  cruise,  but,  on 
consultation  with  Mr.  Clewe  and  Mrs.  Raleigh  at 
Sardis,  it  was  decided  that  they  ought  by  no 
means  to  leave  the  polar  sea  until  they  had  ex 
plored  it  as  thoroughly  as  circumstances  would 
allow.  Consequently  the  next  day  the  Dipsey 
sailed  away  from  the  pole,  leaving  the  buoy 
brightly  floating  on  a  gently  rolling  sea,  its  high- 
uplifted  weather-vane  glittering  in  the  sun,  with 
each  of  its  ends  always  pointing  bravely  to  the 
south. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

A    REGION    OF    NOTHINGNESS 

IN  the  office  of  the  Works  at  Sardis,  side  by 
side  at  the  table  on  which  stood  the  telegraph  in 
strument,  Margaret  Raleigh  and  Roland  Clewe, 
receiving  the  daily  reports  from  the  Dipsey,  had 
found  themselves  in  such  sympathy  and  harmony 
with  the  party  they  had  sent  out  on  this  expedi 
tion  that  they  too,  in  fancy,  had  slowly  groped 
their  way  under  the  grim  overhanging  ice  out 
into  the  open  polar  sea.  They  too  had  stood  on 
the  deck  of  the  vessel  which  had  risen  like  a 
spectre  out  of  the  waters,  and  in  the  cold,  clear 
atmosphere  had  gazed  about  them  at  this  hitherto 
unknown  part  of  the  world.  They  had  thrilled 
with  enthusiastic  excitement  when  the  ring  on 
the  deck  of  the  Dipsey  was  placed  over  the  actual 
location  of  the  pole  ;  they  had  been  filled  with 
anger  when  they  heard  of  the  conduct  of  Ro- 
vinski ;  and  their  souls_had  swelled  with  a  noble 
love  of  country  and  pride  in  their  own  achieve 
ments  when  they  heard  that  they,  by  their  repre 
sentative,  had  made  the  north  pole  a  part  of  their 
native  land.  They  had  listened,  scarcely  breath 
ing,  to  the  stirring  account  of  the  anchoring  of 
the  great  buoy  to  one  end  of  the  earth's  axis, 
and  they  had  exclaimed  in  amazement  at  the  an. 
8 


114  THE    GREAT   STONE    OF    SARDIS 

nouncement  that  in  the  lonely  waters  of  the  pole 
whales  were  still  to  be  found,  when  they  were 
totally  unknown  in  every  other  portion  of  the 
earth. 

But  now  the  stirring  events  in  the  arctic  re 
gions  which  had  so  held  and  enthralled  them  day 

(  by  day  had,  after  a  time,  ceased.  Mr.  Gibbs  was 
engaged  in  making  experiments,  observations, 

•  and  explorations,  the  result  of  which  he  would  em 
body  in  carefully  prepared  reports,  and  Sammy's 
daily  message  promised  to  be  rather  monoto 
nous.  Roland  Clewe  felt  the  great  importance 
of  a  thorough  exploration  and  examination  of 
the  polar  sea.  The  vessel  he  had  sent  out  had 
reached  this  hitherto  inaccessible  region,  but  it 
was  not  at  all  certain  that  another  voyage,  even 
of  the  same  kind,  would  be  successful.  Conse 
quently  he  advised  those  in  charge  of  the  expedi 
tion  not  to  attempt  to  return  until  the  results  of 
their  work  were  as  complete  as  possible.  Should 
the  arctic  night  overtake  them  before  they  left 
the  polar  sea,  this  would  not  interfere  with  their 
return  in  the  same  manner  in  which  they  had 
gone  north,  for  in  a  submarine  voyage  artificial 
light  would  be  necessary  at  any  season.  So,  for 
a  time,  Roland  and  Margaret  withdrew  in  a  great 
measure  their  thoughts  from  the  vicinity  of  the 
pole,  and  devoted  themselves  to  their  work  at 
home. 

When  Roland  Clewe  had  penetrated  with  his 
Artesian  ray  as  deeply  into  the  earth  beneath  him 
as  the  photic  power  of  his  instrument  would  ad 
mit,  he  had  applied  all  the  available  force  of  his 
establishment  —  the  men  working  in  relays  day 


A    REGION   OF    NOTHINGNESS  115 

and  night  —  to  the  manufacture  of  the  instru 
ments  which  should  give  increased  power  to  the 
penetrating  light,  which  he  hoped  would  make 
visible  to  him  the  interior  structure  of  the  earth, 
up  to  this  time  as  unknown  to  man  as  had  been 
the  regions  of  the  poles. 

Roland  had  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  to  the 
arrangement  of  a  system  of  reflectors,  by  which 
he  hoped  to  make  it  possible  to  look  down  into 
the  cylinder  of  light  produced  by  the  Artesian 
ray  without  projecting  any  portion  of  the  body 
of  the  observer  into  the  ray.  This  had  been  done 
principally  to  provide  against  the  possibility  of  a 
shock  to  Margaret,  such  as  he  received  when  he 
beheld  a  man  with  the  upper  part  of  his  body 
totally  invisible,  and  a  section  of  the  other  portion 
laid  bare  to  the  eye  of  a  person  standing  in  front 
of  it.  But  his  success  had  not  been  satisfactory. 
It  was  quite  different  to  look  directly  down  into 
that  magical  perforation  at  his  feet,  instead  of 
studying  the  reflection  of  the  same,  indistinctly 
and  uncertainly  revealed  by  a  system  of  mirrors. 

Consequently  the  plan  of  reflectors  was  dis 
carded,  and  Roland  determined  that  the  right 
thing  to  do  was  to  take  Margaret  into  his  confi 
dence  and  explain  to  her  why  he  and  she  should 
not  stand  together  and  look  down  the  course  of 
the  Artesian  ray.  She  scolded  him  for  not  tell 
ing  her  all  this  before,  and  a  permanent  screen 
was  erected  around  the  spot  on  which  the  ray 
was  intended  to  work,  formed  of  Venetian  blinds 
with  fixed  slats,  so  that  the  person  inside  could 
readily  talk  and  consult  with  others  outside  with 
out  being  seen  by  them. 


Il6  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

As  might  well  be  supposed,  this  work  with  the 
"  photic  borer,"  as  Clewe  now  called  his  instru 
ment,  was  of  absorbing  interest.  For  a  day  or 
two  after  it  was  again  put  into  operation  Marga 
ret  and  Roland  could  scarcely  tear  themselves 
away  from  it  long  enough  for  necessary  sleep 
and  meals,  and  several  persons  connected  with 
the  Works  were  frequently  permitted  to  witness 
its  wonderful  operations. 

Down,  down  descended  that  cylinder  of  light, 
until  it  had  passed  through  all  the  known  geo 
logical  strata  in  that  part  of  New  Jersey,  and  had 
reached  subterranean  depths  known  to  Clewe 
only  by  comparison  and  theory. 

The  apparent  excavation  had  extended  itself 
down  so  far  that  the  disk  at  the  bottom,  although 
so  brightly  illuminated,  was  no  longer  clearly  visi 
ble  to  the  naked  eye,  and  was  rapidly  decreas 
ing  in  size  on  account  of  the  perspective.  But 
the  telescopes  which  Clewe  had  provided  easily 
overcame  this  difficulty.  He  was  sure  that  it 
would  be  impossible  for  his  light  to  penetrate  to 
a  depth  which  could  not  be  made  clearly  visible 
by  his  telescopes. 

It  was  a  wonderful  and  weird  sensation  which 
came  over  those  who  stood,  glass  in  hand,  and 
gazed  down  the  track  of  the  Artesian  ray.  Far, 
far  below  them  they  saw  that  illuminated  disk 
which  revealed  the  character  of  the  stratum 
which  the  light  had  reached.  And  yet  they  could 
not  see  the  telescope  which  they  held  in  their 
hands ;  they  could  not  see  their  hands ;  they 
knew  that  their  heads  and  shoulders  were  invisi 
ble.  All  observers  except  Clewe  kept  well  back 


A    REGION   OP   NOTHINGNESS  Iiy 

from  the  edge  of  the  frightful  hole  of  light  down 
which  they  peered  ;  and  once,  when  the  weight 
of  the  telescope  which  she  held  had  caused  Mar 
garet  to  make  an  involuntary  step  forward,  she 
gave  a  fearful  scream,  for  she  was  sure  she  was 
going  to  fall  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  Clewe, 
who  stood  always  near  by,  with  his  hand  upon 
the  lever  which  controlled  the  ray,  instantly  shut 
off  the  light ;  and  although  Margaret  was  thus 
convinced  that  she  stood  upon  commonplace 
ground,  she  came  irom  within  the  screen,  and  did 
not  for  some  time  recover  from  the  nervous  shock 
occasioned  by  this  accident  of  the  imagmatipn. 

Clewe  himself  took  great  pleasure  in  making 
experiments  connected  with  the  relation  of  the 
observer  to  the  action  of  the  Artesian  ray.  For 
instance,  he  found  that  when  standing  and  gaz 
ing  down  into  the  great  photic  perforation  below 
him,  he  could  see  into  it  quite  as  well  when  he 
shut  his  eyes  as  when  they  were  open ;  the  light 
passing  through  his  head  made  his  eyelids  invisi 
ble.  He  stood  in  the  very  centre  of  the  circle  of 
light  and  looked  down  through  himself. 

That  this  application  of  light  which  he  had  dis 
covered  would  be  of  the  greatest  possible  service 
in  surgery,  Roland  Clewe  well  knew.  By  totally 
eliminating  from  view  any  portion  of  the  human 
body  so  as  to  expose  a  section  of  said  body  which 
it  was  desirable  to  examine,  the  interior  structure 
of  a  patient  could  be  studied  as  easily  as  the  ex 
terior,  and  a  surgeon  would  be  able  to  dissect  a 
living  being  as  easily  as  if  the  subject  were  a 
corpre.  But  Clewe  did  not  now  wish  to  make  pub 
lic  the  extraordinary  adaptations  of  his  discovery 


Il8  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF   SARDIS 

to  the  uses  of  the  medical  man  and  the  surgeon. 
He  was  intent  upon  discovering,  as  far  as  was 
possible,  the  internal  structure  of  the  earth  on 
which  he  dwelt,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  interfere 
at  present  with  this  great  and  absorbing  object 
by  distracting  his  mind  with  any  other  applica 
tion  of  his  Artesian  ray. 

It  is  not  intended  to  describe  in  detail  the  vari 
ous  stages  of  the  progress  of  the  Artesian  ray 
into  the  subterranean  regions.  Sometimes  it  re 
vealed  strata  colored  red,  yellow,  or  green  by  the 
presence  of  iron  ore  ;  sometimes  it  showed  for  a 
short  distance  a  glittering  disk,  produced  by  the 
action  of  the  light  upon  a  deep-sunken  reservoir 
of  water ;  then  it  passed  on,  hour  by  hour,  down, 
down  into  the  eternal  rocks. 

When  the  Artesian  ray  had  begun  to  work  its 
way  through  the  rocks,  Margaret  became  less  in 
terested  in  observing  its  progress.  Nothing  new 
presented  itself ;  it  was  one  continual  stony  disk 
which  she  saw  when  she  looked  down  into  the  shaft 
of  light  beneath  her.  Observation  was  becoming 
more  and  more  difficult  even  to  Roland  Clewe,and 
at  last  he  was  obliged  to  set  up  a  large  telescope 
on  a  stand,  and  mount  a  ladder  in  order  to  use  it. 

Day  after  day  the  Artesian  ray  went  down 
ward,  always  revealing  rock,  rock,  rock.  The 
appliances  for  increased  electric  energy  were 
working  well,  and  Clewe  was  entirely  satisfied 
with  the  operation  of  his  photic  borer. 

One  morning  he  came  hurriedly  to  Margaret 
at  her  house,  and  announced  with  glistening  eyes 
that  his  ray  had  now  gone  to  a  greater  degree 
into  the  earth  than  man  had  ever  yet  reached. 


A    REGION   OP   NOTHINGNESS  119 

"  What  have  you  found  ?"  she  asked,  excitedly. 

"  Rock,  rock,  rock,"  he  answered.  "  This  little 
State  of  ours  rests  upon  a  firm  foundation." 

Although  Roland  Clewe  found  his  observations 
rather  monotonous  work,  he  was  regular  and 
constant  at  his  post,  and  gave  little  opportuni 
ty  to  his  steadily  progressing  cylinder  of  light  to 
reach  and  pass  unseen  anything  which  might  be 
of  interest. 

It  was  nearly  a  week  after  he  had  announced 
to  Margaret  that  he  had  seen  deeper  into  the 
earth  than  any  man  before  him  that  he  mounted 
his  ladder  to  take  his  final  observation  for  the 
night.  When  he  looked  through  his  telescope 
his  eye  was  dazzled  by  a  light  which  obliged  him 
suddenly  to  close  it  and  lift  his  head.  At  first 
he  thought  that  he  had  reached  the  fabulous 
region  of  eternal  fire,  but  this  he  knew  to  be 
absurd  ;  and,  besides,  the  light  was  not  that  of 
fire  or  heated  substances.  It  was  pale,  colorless; 
and  although  dazzling  at  first,  he  found,  when 
very  cautiously  he  applied  his  eye  again  to  the 
telescope,  that  it  was  not  blinding.  In  fact,  he 
could  look  at  it  as  steadily  as  he  could  upon  a 
clear  sky. 

But,  gaze  as  he  would,  he  could  see  nothing — 
nothing  but  light ;  subdued,  soft,  beautiful  light. 
He  knew  the  ray  was  passing  steadily  downward, 
for  the  mechanism  was  working  with  its  accus 
tomed  regularity,  but  it  revealed  to  him  nothing 
at  all.  He  could  not  understand  it ;  his  brain 
was  dazed.  He  thought  there  might  be  some 
thing  the  matter  with  his  eyesight.  He  got  down 
from  the  ladder  and  hurriedly  sent  for  Margaret, 


120  THE    GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

and  when  she  came  he  begged  her  to  look  through 
the  telescope  and  tell  him  what  she  saw.  She 
went  inside  the  screen,  ascended  the  ladder,  and 
looked  down. 

"  It  isn't  anything,"  she  called  out  presently. 
"  It  looks  like  lighter  air  ;  it  can't  be  that.  Per 
haps  there  is  something  the  matter  with  your 
telescope." 

Clewe  had  thought  of  that,  and  as  soon  as  she 
came  out  he  examined  the  instrument,  but  the 
lenses  were  all  right.  There  was  nothing  the 
matter  with  the  telescope. 

That  night  Roland  Clewe  spent  in  the  lens- 
house,  almost  constantly  at  the  telescope,  but 
nothing  did  he  see  but  a  disk  of  soft,  white 
light. 

"  The  world  can't  be  hollow  !"  he  said  to  Mar 
garet  the  next  morning.  "  It  can't  be  filled  with 
air,  or  nothing,  and  my  ray  would  not  illuminate 
air  or  nothing.  I  cannot  understand  it.  If  you 
did  not  see  what  I  see,  I  should  think  I  was  go 
ing  crazy." 

"  Don't  talk  that  way,"  exclaimed  Margaret. 
"This  may  be  some  cavity  which  the  ray  will 
soon  pass  through,  and  then  we  shall  come  to  the 
good  old  familiar  rock  again." 

But  Clewe  could  not  be  consoled  in  this  way. 
He  could  see  no  reason  why  his  ray  acting  upon 
the  emptiness  of  a  cavern  should  produce  the 
effect  he  beheld.  Moreover,  if  the  ray  had  re 
vealed  a  cavern  of  considerable  extent  he  could 
not  expect  that  it  could  now  pass  through  it,  for 
the  limit  of  its  operations  was  almost  reached. 
His  electric  cumulators  would  cease  to  act  in  a 


A    REGION   OF   NOTHINGNESS  121 

few  hours  more.  The  ray  had  now  descended 
more  than  fourteen  miles — its  limit  was  fifteen. 

Margaret  was  greatly  troubled  because  of  the 
effect  of  this  result  of  the  light  borer  upon  Ro 
land.  His  disappointment  was  very  great,  and 
it  showed  itself  in  his  face.  His  Artesian  ray 
had  gone  down  to  a  distance  greater  than  had 
been  sometimes  estimated  as  the  thickness  of  the 
earth's  crust,  and  the  result  was  of  no  value. 
Roland  did  not  believe  that  the  earth  had  a  crust. 
He  had  no  faith  in  the  old-fashioned  idea  that 
the  great  central  portion  was  a  mass  of  molten 
matter,  but  he  could  not  drive  from  his  mind  the 
conviction  that  his  light  had  passed  through  the 
solid  portion  of  the  earth,  and  had  emerged  into 
something  which  was  not  solid,  which  was  not 
liquid,  which  was  in  fact  nothing. 

All  his  labors  had  come  to  this :  he  had  dis 
covered  that  the  various  strata  near  the  earth's 
surface  rested  upon  a  vast  bed  of  rock,  and  that 
this  bed  of  rock  rested  upon  nothing.  Of  course 
it  was  not  impossible  that  the  arrangement  of 
the  substances  which  make  up  this  globe  was 
peculiar  at  this  point,  and  that  there  was  a  great 
cavern  fourteen  miles  below  him  ;  but  why  should 
such  a  cavern  be  filled  with  a  light  different  from 
that  which  would  be  shown  by  his  Artesian  ray 
when  shining  upon  any  other  substances,  open 
air  or  solid  matter  ? 

He  could  go  no  deeper  down — at  least  at  pres 
ent.  If  he  could  make  an  instrument  of  increased 
power,  it  would  require  many  months  to  do  it. 

"  But  I  will  do  it,"  said  he  to  Margaret.  "  If 
this  is  a  cavern,  and  if  it  has  a  bottom,  I  will 


122  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF    SARDIS 

reach  it.  I  will  go  on  and  see  what  there  is  be 
yond.  On  such  a  discovery  as  I  have  made  one 
can  pass  no  conclusion  whatever.  If  I*  cannot  go 
farther,  I  need  not  have  gone  down  at  all." 

"  No,"  said  Margaret,  "  I  don't  want  you  to  go 
on — at  least  at  present ;  you  must  wait.  The  earth 
will  wait,  and  I  want  you  to  be  in  a  condition  to  be 
able  to  wait  also.  You  must  now  stop  this  work 
altogether.  Stop  doing  anything ;  stop  thinking 
about  it.  After  a  time — say  early  in  winter — we 
can  recommence  operations  with  the  Artesian 
ray;  that  is,  if  we  think  well  to  do  so.  You  should 
stop  this  and  take  up  something  else.  You  have 
several  enterprises  which  are  very  important  and 
ought  to  be  carried  on.  Take  up  one  of  them, 
and  think  no  more  for  a  few  months  of  the  noth 
ingness  which  is  fourteen  miles  below  us." 

It  was  not  difficult  for  Roland  Clewe  to  con 
vince  himself  that  this  was  very  good  advice. 
He  resolved  to  shut  up  his  lens-house  entirely 
for  a  time,  and  think  no  more  of  the  great  work 
he  had  done  within  it,  but  apply  himself  to  some 
thing  which  he  had  long  neglected,  and  which 
would  be  a  distraction  and  a  recreation  to  his  dis 
appointed  mind. 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE   AUTOMATIC    SHELL 

IN  a  large  building,  not  far  from  the  lens-house 
in  which  Roland  Clewe  had  pursued  the  experi 
ments  which  had  come  to  such  a  disappointing 
conclusion,  there  was  a  piece  of  mechanism  which 
interested  its  inventor  more  than  any  other  of  his 
works,  excepting  of  course  the  photic  borer. 

This  was  an  enormous  projectile,  the  peculiar 
ity  of  which  was  that  its  motive  power  was  con 
tained  within  itself,  very  much  as  a  rocket  con 
tains  the  explosives  which  send  it  upward.  It 
differed,  however,  from  the  rocket  or  any  other 
similar  projectile,  and  many  of  its  features  were 
entirely  original  with  Roland  Clewe. 

This  extraordinary  piece  of  mechanism,  which 
was  called  the  automatic  shell,  was  of  cylindrical 
form,  eighteen  feet  in  length  and  four  feet  in 
diameter.  The  forward  end  was  conical  and  not 
solid,  being  formed  of  a  number  of  flat  steel  rings, 
decreasing  in  size  as  they  approached  the  point  of 
the  cone.  When  not  in  operation  these  rings  did 
not  touch  one  another,  but  they  could  be  forced 
together  by  pressure  on  the  point  of  the  cone. 
This  shell  might  contain  explosives  or  not,  as 
might  be  considered  desirable,  and  it  was  not  in 
tended  to  fire  it  from  a  cannon,  but  to  start  it 


124  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

on  its  course  from  a  long  semicylindrical  trough, 
which  would  be  used  simply  to  give  it  the  desired 
direction.  After  it  had  been  started  by  a  ram 
worked  by  an  engine  at  the  rear  end  of  the 
trough,  it  immediately  began  to  propel  itself  by 
means  of  the  mechanism  contained  within  it. 

But  the  great  value  of  this  shell  lay  in  the  fact 
that  the  moment  it  encountered  a  solid  substance 
or  obstruction  of  any  kind  its  propelling  power 
became  increased.  The  rings  which  formed  the 
cone  on  its  forward  end  were  pressed  together, 
the  electric  motive  power  was  increased  in  pro 
portion  to  the  pressure,  and  thus  the  greater  the 
resistance  to  this  projectile  the  greater  became 
its  velocity  and  power  of  progression,  and  its  on 
ward  course  continued  until  its  self  -  containing 
force  had  been  exhausted. 

The  power  of  explosives  had  reached,  at  this 
period,  to  so  high  a  point  that  it  was  unnecessary 
to  devise  any  increase  in  their  enormous  energy, 
and  the  only  problems  before  the  students  of 
artillery  practice  related  to  methods  of  getting 
their  projectiles  to  the  points  desired.  Progress 
in  this  branch  of  the  science  had  proceeded  so 
far  that  an  attack  upon  a  fortified  port  by  ar 
mored  vessels  was  now  considered  as  a  thing  of 
the  past ;  and  although  there  had  been  no  naval 
wars  of  late  years,  it  was  believed  that  never 
again  would  there  be  a  combat  between  vessels 
of  iron  or  steel. 

The  recently  invented  magnetic  shell  made  ar 
tillery  practice  against  all  vessels  of  iron  a  mere 
mechanical  process,  demanding  no  skill  whatever. 
When  one  of  these  magnetic  shells  was  thrown 


THE   AUTOMATIC    SHELL  125 

anywhere  in  the  vidnity  of  an  iron  ship,  the 
powerful  magnetism  developed  within  it  instant 
ly  attracted  it  to  the  vessel,  which  was  destroyed 
by  the  ensuing  contact  and  explosion.  Two  iron 
clads  meeting  on  the  ocean  need  each  to  fire  but 
one  shell  to  be  both  destroyed.  The  inability  of 
iron  battle  -  ships  to  withstand  this  improvement 
in  artillery  had  already  set  the  naval  architects 
of  the  world  upon  the  work  of  constructing  war 
ships  which  would  not  attract  the  magnetic  shell 
— which  was  effective  even  when  laid  on  the  bot 
toms  of  harbors  —  and  Roland  Clewe  had  been 
engaged  in  making  plans  and  experiments  for 
the  construction  of  a  paper  man-of-war,  which  he 
believed  would  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
situation. 

When  Clewe  determined  to  follow  Margaret 
Raleigh's  advice  and  give  up  for  a  time  his  work 
with  the  Artesian  ray,  his  thoughts  naturally 
turned  to  his  automatic  shell.  Work  upon  this 
invention  was  now  almost  completed,  but  the 
great  difficulty  which  its  inventor  expected  to 
meet  with  was  that  of  inducing  his  government 
to  make  a  trial  of  it.  Such  a  trial  would  be  ex 
tremely  expensive,  involving  probably  the  de 
struction  of  the  shell,  and  he  did  not  feel  able  or 
willing  to  experiment  with  it  without  govern 
mental  aid. 

The  shell  was  intended  for  use  on  land  as  well 
as  at  sea,  against  cities  and  great  fortified  struct 
ures,  and  Clewe  believed  that  the  automatic 
shell  might  be  brought  within  fifty  miles  of  a 
city,  set  up  with  its  trough  and  ram,  and  pro 
jected  in  a  level  line  towards  its  object,  to  which 


126  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

it  would  impel  itself  with  irresistible  power  and 
velocity,  through  forests,  hills,  buildings,  and  ev 
erything,  gaining  strength  from  every  opposi 
tion  which  stood  in  the  direct  line  of  its  progress. 
Attacking  fortifications  from  the  sea,  the  vessel 
carrying  this  great  projectile  could  operate  at 
a  distance  beyond  the  reach  of  the  magnetic 
shell. 

Now  that  the  automatic  shell  itself  was  finish 
ed,  and  nothing  remained  to  be  done  but  to  com 
plete  the  great  steel  trough  in  which  it  would  lie, 
Roland  Clewe  found  himself  confronted  with  a 
business  which  was  very  hard  and  very  distaste 
ful  to  him.  He  must  induce  other  people  to  do 
what  he  was  not  able  to  do  himself.  Unless  his 
shell  was  put  to  a  practical  trial,  it  could  be  of  no 
value  to  the  world  or  to  himself. 

In  one  of  the  many  conversations  on  the  sub 
ject,  Margaret  had  suggested  something  which 
rapidly  grew  and  developed  in  Roland's  mind. 

"It  would  be  an  admirable  thing  to  tunnel, 
mountains  with,"  said  she.  "  Of  course  I  mean  a 
large  one,  as  thick  through  as  a  tunnel  ought 
to  be." 

In  less  than  a  day  Clewe  had  perfected  an  idea 
which  he  believed  might  be  of  practical  service. 
For  some  time  there  had  been  talk  of  a  new  rail 
road  in  this  part  of  the  State,  but  one  of  the  diffi 
culties  in  the  way  was  the  necessity  of  making  a 
tunnel  or  a  deep  cut  through  a  small  mountain. 
To  go  round  this  mountain  would  be  objection 
able  for  many  reasons,  and  to  go  through  it 
would  be  enormously  expensive.  Clewe  knew  the 
country  well,  and  his  soul  glowed  within  him 


THE    AUTOMATIC    SHELL 


THE   AUTOMATIC   SHELL  127 

as  he  thought  that  here  perhaps  was  an  oppor 
tunity  for  him  to  demonstrate  the  value  of  his  in 
vention,  not  only  as  an  agent  in  warfare,  but  as 
a  wonderful  assistant  in  the  peaceful  progress  of 
the  world. 

There  was  no  reason  why  such  shells  should  not 
be  constructed  for  the  express  purpose  of  making 
tunnels.  Nothing  could  be  better  adapted  for  an 
experiment  of  this  kind  than  the  low  mountain  in 
question.  If  the  shell  passed  through  it  at  the  de 
sired  point,  there  would  be  nothing  beyond  which 
could  be  injured,  and  it  would  then  enter  the  end 
of  a  small  chain  of  mountains,  and  might  pass  on 
ward,  as  far  as  its  motive  power  would  carry  it, 
without  doing  any  damage  whatever.  Moreover, 
its  course  could  be  followed  and  it  could  be  re 
covered. 

Both  Roland  and  Margaret  were  very  enthusi 
astic  in  favor  of  this  trial  of  the  automatic  shell, 
and  they  determined  that  if  the  railroad  company 
would  pay  them  a  fair  price  if  they  should  suc 
ceed  in  tunnelling  the  mountain,  they  would 
charge  nothing  should  their  experiment  be  a  fail 
ure.  Of  course  the  tunnel  the  shell  would  make, 
if  everything  worked  properly,  would  not  be  large 
enough  for  any  practical  use ;  but  explosives 
might  be  placed  along  its  length,  which,  if  de 
sired,  would  blow  out  that  portion  of  the  moun 
tain  which  lay  immediately  above  the  tunnel,  and 
this  great  cut  could  readily  be  enlarged  to  any 
desired  dimensions. 

Clewe  would  have  gone  immediately  to  confer 
with  the  secretary  of  the  railroad  company,  with 
whom  he  was  acquainted,  but  that  gentleman  was 


128  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

at  the  sea-side,  and  the  business  was  necessarily 
postponed. 

•"  Now,"  said  Clewe  to  Margaret,  "  if  I  could  do 
it,  I'd  like  to  take  a  run  up  to  the  polar  sea  and  see 
for  myself  what  they  have  discovered.  Judging 
from  Sammy's  infrequent  despatches,  the  party 
in  general  must  be  getting  a  little  tired  of  Mr. 
Gibbs's  experiments  and  soundings  ;  but  I  should 
be  intensely  interested  in  them." 

"  I  don't  wonder,"  answered  Margaret,  "  that 
they  are  getting  tired  ;  they  have  found  the  pole, 
and  they  want  to  come  home.  That  is  natural 
enough.  But,  for  my  part,  I  am  very  glad  we 
can't  run  up  there.  Even  if  we  had  another 
Dipsey  I  should  decidedly  oppose  it.  I  might 
agree  that  we  should  go  to  Cape  Tariff,  but  I 
would  not  agree  to  anything  more.  You  may 
discover  poles  if  you  want  to,  but  you  must  do 
it  by  proxy." 

At  this  moment  an  awful  crash  was  heard.  It 
came  from  the  building  containing  the  automatic 
shell.  Clewe  and  Margaret  started  to  their  feet. 
They  glanced  at  each  other,  and  then  both  ran 
from  the  office  at  the  top  of  their  speed.  Other 
people  were  running  from  various  parts  of  the 
Works.  There  was  no  smoke  ;  there  was  no  dust. 
There  had  been  no  explosion,  as  Clewe  had  feared 
in  his  first  alarm. 

When  they  entered  the  building,  Clewe  and 
Margaret  stood  aghast.  There  were  workmen 
shouting  or  standing  with  open  mouths  ;  others 
were  running  in.  The  massive  scaffolding,  twenty 
feet  in  height,  on  which  the  shell  had  been  raised 
so  that  the  steel  trough  might  be  run  under  it,  lay 


THE    AUTOMATIC    SHELL  129 

in  splinters  upon  the  ground.  The  great  auto 
matic  shell  itself  had  entirely  disappeared. 

For  some  moments  no  one  said  anything ;  all 
stood  astounded,  looking  at  the  space  where  the 
shell  had  been.  Then  Clewe  hurried  forward. 
In  the  ground,  amid  the  wreck  of  the  scaffolding, 
was  a  circular  hole  about  four  feet  in  diameter. 
Clasping  the  hand  of  a  man  near  him,  he  cau 
tiously  peered  over  the  edge  and  looked  down. 
It  was  dark  and  deep  ;  he  saw  nothing. 

Roland  Clewe  stepped  back ;  he  put  his  hands 
over  his  eyes  and  thought.  Now  he  compre 
hended  everything  clearly.  The  weight  of  the 
shell  had  been  too  great  for  its  supports.  The  for 
ward  part,  which  contained  the  propelling  mech 
anism,  was  much  heavier  than  the  other  end,  and 
had  gone  down  first,  so  that  the  shell  had  turned 
over  and  had  fallen  perpendicularly,  striking  the 
ground  with  the  point  of  the  cone.  Then  its 
tremendous  propelling  energy,  infinitely  more 
powerful  than  any  dynamic  force  dreamed  of  in 
the  preceding  century,  was  instantly  generated. 
The  inconceivably  rapid  motion  which  forced  it 
forward  like  a  screw  must  have  then  commenced, 
and  it  had  bored  itself  down  deep  into  the  solid 
earth. 

"  Roland,  dear,"  said  Margaret,  stepping  quietly 
up  to  him,  tears  on  her  pale  countenance,  "  don't 
you  think  it  can  be  hoisted  up  again  ?" 

"  I  hope  not,"  said  he. 

"Why  do  you  say  that?"  she  asked,  aston 
ished. 

"  Because,"  he  answered,  "  if  it  has  not  pene 
trated  far  enough  into  the  earth  to  make  it  utter- 
9 


130  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

ly  out  of  our  power  to  get  it  again,  the  thing  is  a 
failure." 

"  More  than  that,"  thought  Margaret ;  "  if  it 
has  gone  down  entirely  out  of  our  reach,  the 
thing  is  a  failure  all  the  same,  for  I  don't  believe 
he  can  ever  be  induced  to  make  another." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  TRACK  OF  THE  SHELL 

DURING  the  course  of  his  inventive  life  Roland 
Clewe  had  become  accustomed  to  disappoint 
ments  ;  he  was  very  much  afraid,  indeed,  that 
he  was  beginning  to  expect  them.  If  that  really 
happened,  there  would  be  an  end  to  his  career. 

But  when  he  spoke  in  this  way  to  Margaret, 
she  almost  scolded  him. 

"  How  utterly  absurd  it  is,"  she  said,  "  for  a 
man  who  has  just  discovered  the  north  pole  to 
sit  down  in  an  arm-chair  and  talk  in  that  way  !" 

"  I  didn't  discover  it,"  he  said  ;  "  it  was  Sammy 
and  Gibbs  who  found  the  pole.  As  for  me — I 
don't  suppose  I  shall  ever  see  it." 

"  I  am  not  so  sure  of  that,"  she  said.  "  We 
may  yet  invent  a  telescope  which  shall  curve  its 
reflected  rays  over  the  rotundity  of  the  earth 
and  above  the  highest  icebergs,  so  that  you  and 
I  may  sit  here  and  look  at  the  waters  of  the  pole 
gently  splashing  around  the  great  buoy." 

"  And  charge  a  dollar  apiece  to  all  other  people 
who  would  like  to  look  at  the  pole,  and  so  we 
might  make  much  money,"  said  he.  "But  I 
must  really  go  and  do  something  ;  I  shall  go 
crazy  if  I  sit  here  idle." 

Margaret  knew  that  the  loss  of  the  shell  was 


132  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

the  greatest  blow  that  Roland  had  ever  yet  re 
ceived.  His  ambitions  as  a  scientific  inventor 
were  varied,  but  she  was  well  aware  that  for  some 
years  he  had  considered  it  of  great  importance 
to  do  something  which  would  bring  him  in  money 
enough  to  go  on  with  his  investigations  and  labors 
without  depending  entirely  upon  her  for  the  nec 
essary  capital.  If  he  could  have  tunnelled  a 
mountain  with  this  shell,  or  if  he  had  but  par 
tially  succeeded  in  so  doing,  money  would  have 
come  to  him.  He  would  have  made  his  first  pe 
cuniary  success  of  any  importance. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do,  Roland  ?"  said  she, 
as  he  rose  to  leave  the  room. 

"  I  am  going  to  find  the  depth  of  the  hole  that 
shell  has  made.  It  ought  to  be  filled  up,  and 
I  must  calculate  how  many  loads  of  earth  and 
stones  it  will  take  to  do  it." 

That  afternoon  he  came  to  Mrs.  Raleigh's 
house. 

"  Margaret,"  he  exclaimed,  "  I  have  lowered  a 
lead  into  that  hole  with  all  the  line  attached 
which  we  have  got  on  the  place,  and  we  can  touch 
no  bottom.  I  have  telegraphed  for  a  lot  of  sound 
ing-wire,  and  I  must  wait  until  it  shall  arrive  be 
fore  I  do  anything  more." 

"  You  must  be  very,  very  careful,  Roland,  when 
you  are  doing  that  work,"  said  Margaret.  "  Sup 
pose  you  should  fall  in  !" 

"  I  have  provided  against  that,"  said  he.  "  I 
have  laid  a  floor  over  the  hole  with  only  a  small 
opening  in  it,  so  there  is  no  danger.  And  an 
other  curious  thing  I  must  tell  you — our  line  is 
not  wet :  we  have  struck  no  water  !" 


THE   TRACK   OF   THE    SHELL  133 

When  Margaret  visited  the  Works  the  next  day 
she  found  Roland  Clewe  and  a  number  of  work 
men  surrounding  the  flooring  which  had  been  laid 
over  the  hole.  They  were  sounding  with  a  wind 
lass  which  carried  an  immense  reel  of  wire.  The 
wire  was  extremely  thin,  but  the  weight  of  that 
portion  of  it  which  had  already  been  unwound 
was  so  great  that  four  men  were  at  the  handles 
of  the  windlass. 

Roland  came  to  meet  Margaret  as  she  entered. 

"  The  lead  has  gone  down  six  miles,"  he  said, 
in  a  low  voice,  "  and  we  have  not  touched  the 
bottom  yet." 

"  Impossible  !"  she  cried.  "  Roland,  it  cannot 
be  !  The  wire  must  be  coiling  itself  up  some 
where.  It  is  incredible  !  The  lead  cannot  have 
gone  down  so  far  !" 

"  Leads  have  gone  down  as  far  as  that  before 
this,"  said  he.  "  Soundings  of  more  than  six 
miles  have  been  obtained  at  sea." 

She  went  with  him  and  stood  near  the  wind 
lass.  For  an  hour  she  remained  by  his  side,  and 
still  the  reel  turned  steadily  and  the  wire  de 
scended  into  the  hole. 

"  Shall  you  surely  know  when  it  gets  to  the 
bottom  ?"  said  she. 

"  Yes,"  he  answered.  "  When  the  electric  but 
ton  under  the  lead  shall  touch  anything  solid,  or 
even  anything  fluid,  this  bell  up  here  will  ring." 

She  stayed  until  she  could  stay  no  longer.  She 
knew  it  would  be  of  no  use  to  urge  Roland  to 
leave  the  windlass.  Very  early  the  next  morn 
ing  a  note  was  brought  to  her  before  she  was  up, 
and  on  it  was  written: 


134  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF    SARDIS 

' '  We  have  touched  bottom  at  a  depth  of  fourteen  and  an 
eighth  miles." 

When  Roland  came  to  Mrs.  Raleigh's  house, 
about  nine  o'clock  that  morning,  his  face  was 
pale  and  his  whole  form  trembled. 

"  Margaret,"  he  cried,  "  what  are  we  going  to  do 
about  it  ?  It  is  wonderful ;  I  cannot  appreciate 
it.  I  have  had  all  the  men  up  in  the  office  this 
morning  and  pledged  them  to  secrecy.  Of  course 
they  won't  keep  their  promises,  but  it  was  all 
that  I  could  do.  I  can  think  of  no  particular 
damage  which  would  come  to  me  if  this  thing 
were  known,  but  I  cannot  bear  that  the  public 
should  get  hold  of  it  until  I  know  something  my 
self.  Margaret,  I  don't  know  anything." 

"  Have  you  had  your  breakfast  ?"  she  asked. 

"  No,"  he  said  ;  "  I  haven't  thought  of  it." 

"  Did  you  eat  anything  last  night  ?" 

"  I  don't  remember,"  he  answered. 

"  Now  I  want  you  to  come  into  the  dining- 
room,"  said  she.  "  I  had  a  light  breakfast  some 
time  ago,  and  I  am  going  to  eat  another  with 
you.  I  want  you  to  tell  me  something.  There 
was  a  man  here  the  other  day  with  a  patent 
machine  for  making  button-holes — you  know  the 
old-fashioned  button-holes  are  coming  in  again 
— and  if  this  is  a  good  invention  it  ought  to  sell, 
for  nearly  everybody  has  forgotten  how  to  make 
button-holes  in  the  old  way." 

"  Oh,  nonsense  !"  said  Roland.  "  How  can  you 
talk  of  such  things  ?  I  can't  take  my  mind — " 

"  I  know  you  can't,"  she  interrupted.  "  You 
are  all  the  time  thinking  of  that  everlasting  old 


THE  TRACK  OP  THE  SHELL         135 

hole  in  the  ground.     Well,  I  am  tired  of  it ;  do 
let  us  talk  of  something  else." 

Margaret  Raleigh  was  much  more  than  tired 
of  that  phenomenal  hole  in  the  earth  which  had 
been  made  by  the  automatic  shell ;  she  was 
frightened  by  it.  It  was  something  terrible  to 
her  ;  she  had  scarcely  slept  that  night,  and  she 
needed  breakfast  and  change  of  thought  as  much 
as  Roland. 

But  it  was  not  long  before  she  found  that  it 
was  impossible  to  turn  his  thoughts  from  that 
all-absorbing  subject.  All  she  could  do  was  to 
endeavor  to  guide  them  into  quiet  channels. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  this  morning  ?"  she 
asked,  towards  the  close  of  the  breakfast. 

"  I  am  going  to  try  to  take  the  temperature  of 
that  shaft  at  various  points,"  said  he. 

"That  will  be  an  excellent  thing,"  she  an 
swered  ;  "  you  may  make  valuable  discoveries  ; 
but  I  should  think  the  heat  at  that  great  depth 
would  be  enough  to  melt  your  thermometers." 

"  It   did   not  melt  my  lead   or  my  sounding- 
wire,"  said  he.     And  as  he  said  these  words  her  ^ 
heart  fell. 

The  temperature  of  this  great  perforation  was 
taken  at  many  points,  and  when  Roland  brought 
to  Margaret  the  statement  of  the  height  of  the 
mercury  at  the  very  bottom  she  was  astounded 
and  shocked  to  find  that  it  was  only  eighty-three 
degrees. 

"  This  is  terrible  !"  she  ejaculated. 

"What  do  you  mean?"  he  asked  in  surprise. 
"That  is  not  hot.  Why,  it  is  only  summer 
weather." 


136  THE    GREAT   STONE   OF    SARDIS 

But  she  did  not  think  it  terrible  because  it  was 
so  hot ;  the  fact  that  it  was  so  cool  had  shocked 
her.  In  such  temperature  one  could  live  !  A 
great  source  of  trust  and  hope  had  been  taken 
from  her. 

"  Roland,"  she  said,  sinking  into  a  chair,  "  I 
don't  understand  this  at  all.  I  always  thought 
that  it  became  hotter  and  hotter  as  one  went 
down  into  the  earth  ;  and  I  once  read  that  at 
twenty  miles  below  the  surface,  if  the  heat  in- 
creased  in  proportion  as  it  increased  in  a  mine, 
the  temperature  must  be  over  a  thousand  de 
grees  Fahrenheit.  Your  instrument  could  not 
have  registered  properly  ;  perhaps  it  never  went 
all  the  way  down  ;  and  perhaps  it  is  all  a  mis 
take.  It  may  be  that  the  lead  did  not  go  down 
so  far  as  you  think." 

He  smiled;  he  was  becoming  calmer  now,  for 
he  was  doing  something  :  he  was  obtaining  re 
sults. 

"  Those  ideas  about  increasing  heat  at  increas 
ing  depths  are  old-fashioned,  Margaret,"  he  said. 
"  Recent  science  has  given  us  better  theories.  It 
is  known  that  there  is  great  heat  in  the  interior 
of  the  earth,  and  it  is  also  known  that  the  trans 
mission  of  this  heat  towards  the  surface  depends 
upon  the  conductivity  of  the  rocks  in  particular 
locations.  In  some  places  the  heat  comes  very 
near  the  surface,  and  in  others  it  is  very,  very  far 
down.  More  than  that,  the  temperature  may  rise 
as  we  go  down  into  the  earth  and  afterwards  fall 
again.  There  may  be  a  stratum  of  close-grained 
rock,  possibly  containing  metal,  coming  up  from 
the  interior  in  an  oblique  direction  and  bringing 


THE  TRACK  OF  THE  SHELL         137 

the  heat  towards  the  surface ;  then  below  that 
there  may  be  vast  regions  of  other  rocks  which 
do  not  readily  conduct  heat,  and  which  do  not 
originate  in  heated  portions  of  the  earth's  inte 
rior.  When  we  reach  these,  we  must  find  the 
temperature  lower,  as  a  matter  of  course.  Now 
I  have  really  done  this.  A  little  over  five  miles 
down  my  thermometer  registered  ninety -one, 
and  after  that  it  began  to  fall  a  little.  But  the 
rocks  under  us  are  poor  conductors  of  heat ;  and, 
moreover,  it  is  highly  probable  that  they  have  no 
near  communication  with  the  source  of  internal 
heat." 

"  I  thought  these  things  were  more  exact  and 
regular,"  said  she;  "  I  supposed  if  you  went  down 
a  mile  in  one  place,  you  would  find  it  as  hot  as 
you  would  in  another." 

"  Oh  no,"  said  he.  "  There  is  nothing  regular 
or  exact  in  nature ;  even  our  earth  is  not  a  per 
fect  sphere.  Nature  is  never  mathematically  cor 
rect.  You  must  always  allow  for  variations.  In 
some  parts  of  the  earth  its  heated  core,  or  what 
ever  it  is,  must  be  very,  very  far  down." 

At  this  moment  a  happy  thought  struck  Mar 
garet. 

"  How  easy  it  would  be,  Roland,  for  you  to  ex 
amine  this  great  hole  !  I  can  do  it ;  anybody  can 
do  it.  It's  perfectly  amazing  when  you  think  of 
it,  All  you  have  to  do  is  to  take  your  Artesian- 
ray  machine  into  that  building  and  set  it  oven 
the  hole ;  then  you  can  light  the  whole  interior, 
all  the  way  down  to  the  bottom,  and  with  a  tele* 
scope  you  can  see  everything  that  is  in  it." 

"  Yes,"  said  he  ;  "  but  I  think  I  can  do  it  bettei 


138  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF    SARDIS 

than  that.  It  would  be  very  difficult  to  transfer 
the  photic  borer  to  the  other  building,  and  I  can 
light  up  the  interior  perfectly  well  by  means  of 
electric  lights.  I  can  even  lower  a  camera  down 
to  the  very  bottom  and  take  photographs  of  the 
interior." 

"Why,  that  would  be  perfectly  glorious  !"  cried 
Margaret,  springing  to  her  feet,  an  immense  re 
lief  coming  to  her  mind  with  the  thought  that  to 
examine  this  actual  shaft  it  would  not  be  neces 
sary  for  anybody  to  go  down  into  it. 

"  I  should  go  to  work  at  that  immediately," 
said  he,  "  but  I  must  have  a  different  sort  of 
windlass — one  that  shall  be  moved  by  an  engine. 
I  will  rig  up  the  big  telescope  too,  so  that  we  can 
look  down  when  we  have  lighted  up  the  bottom." 

It  required  days  to  do  all  that  Roland  Clewe 
had  planned.  A  great  deal  of  the  necessary  work 
was  done  in  his  own  establishment,  and  much  ma 
chinery  besides  was  sent  from  New  York.  When 
all  was  ready  many  experiments  were  made  with 
the  electric  lights  and  camera,  and  photographs 
of  inexpressible  value  and  interest  were  taken  at 
various  points  on  the  sides  of  this  wonderful  per 
pendicular  tunnel. 

At  last  Clewe  was  prepared  to  photograph  the 
lower  portion  of  the  shaft.  With  a  peculiar  cam 
era  and  a  powerful  light  five  photographs  were 
taken  of  the  very  bottom  of  the  great  shaft — 
four  in  horizontal  directions  and  one  immediate 
ly  below  the  camera.  When  these  photographs 
were  printed  by  the  improved  methods  then  in 
vogue,  Clewe  seized  the  pictures  and  examined 
them  with  eager  haste.  For  some  moments  he 


THE  TRACK  OP  THE  SHELL         139 

stood  silent,  his  eyes  fixed  upon  the  photographs 
as  if  there  was  nothing  else  in  this  world  ;  but  all 
he  saw  on  each  was  an  irregular  patch  of  light. 
He  thrust  the  prints  aside,  and  in  a  loud,  sharp 
voice  he  gave  orders  to  bring  the  great  telescope 
and  set  it  up  above  the  hole.  The  light  was  still 
at  the  bottom,  and  the  instant  the  telescope  was 
in  position  Clewe  mounted  the  step-ladder  and 
directed  the  instrument  downward.  In  a  few 
moments  he  gave  an  exclamation,  and  then  he 
came  down  from  the  ladder  so  rapidly  that  he 
barely  missed  falling.  He  went  into  his  office 
and  sent  for  Margaret.  When  she  came  he 
showed  her  the  photographs. 

"  See  !"  he  said.  "  What  I  have  found  is  noth 
ing  ;  even  a  camera  shows  nothing,  and  when  I 
look  down  through  the  glass  I  see  nothing.  It  is 
just  what  the  Artesian  ray  showed  me  ;  it  is  noth 
ing  at  all !" 

"  I  should  think,"  said  she,  speaking  very  slow 
ly,  "  that  if  your  sounding-lead  had  gone  down 
into  nothing,  it  would  have  continued  to  go 
down  indefinitely.  What  was  there  to  stop  it  if 
there  is  nothing  there  ?" 

"  Margaret,"  said  he,  "  I  don't  know  anything 
about  it.  That  is  the  crushing  truth.  I  can  find 
out  nothing  at  all.  When  I  look  down  through 
the  earth  by  means  of  the  Artesian  ray  I  reach  a 
certain  depth  and  then  I  see  a  void  ;  when  I  look 
down  through  a  perfectly  open  passage  to  the 
same  depth,  I  still  see  a  void." 

"  But,  Roland,"  said  Margaret,  holding  in  her 
hand  the  view  taken  of  the  bottom  of  the  shaft, 
"what  is  this  in  the  middle  of  the  proof?  It  is 


140  THE   GREAT   STONE    OF    SARDIS 

darker  than  the  rest,  but  it  seems  to  be  all  cov 
ered  up  with  mistiness.  Have  you  a  magnifying- 
glass  ?" 

Roland  found  a  glass,  and  seized  the  photo 
graph.  He  had  forgotten  his  usual  courtesy. 

"  Margaret,"  he  cried,  "that  dark  thing  is  my 
automatic  shell  !  It  is  lying  on  its  side.  I  can 
see  the  greater  part  of  it.  It  is  not  in  the  hole  it 
made  itself  ;  it  is  in  a  cavity.  It  has  turned  over, 
and  lies  horizontally  ;  it  has  bored  down  into  a 
cave,  Margaret — into  a  cave — a  cave  with  a  solid 
bottom — a  cave  made  of  light !" 

"  Nonsense  !"  said  Margaret.  "  Caves  cannot 
be  made  of  light  ;  the  light  that  you  see  comes 
from  your  electric  lamp." 

"  Not  at  all !"  he  cried.  "  If  there  was  anything 
there,  the  light  of  my  lamp  would  show  it.  Dur 
ing  the  whole  depth  of  the  shaft  the  light  showed 
everything  and  the  camera  showed  everything ; 
you  can  see  the  very  texture  of  the  rocks  ;  but 
when  the  camera  goes  to  the  bottom,  when  it  en 
ters  this  space  into  which  the  shaft  plainly  leads, 
it  shows  nothing  at  all,  except  what  I  may  be  said 
to  have  put  there.  I  see  only  my  great  shell  sur 
rounded  by  light,  resting  on  light !" 

"  Roland,"  said  Margaret,  "  you  are  crazy ! 
Perhaps  it  is  water  which  fills  that  cave,  or  what 
ever  it  is." 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  Roland.  "  It  presents  no  ap 
pearance  of  water,  and  when  the  camera  came  up 
it  was  not  wet.  No  ;  it  is  a  cave  of  light." 

He  sat  for  some  minutes  silently  gazing  out  of 
the  window.  Margaret  drew  her  chair  closer  to 
him.  She  took  one  of  his  hands  in  both  of  hers. 


THE   TRACK    OP   THE    SHELL  14! 

"  Look  at  me,  Roland  !"  she  said.  "  What  are 
you  thinking  about  ?" 

He  turned  his  face  upon  her,  but  said  nothing. 
She  looked  straight  into  his  eyes,  and  she  needed 
no  Artesian  ray  to  enable  her  to  see  through  them 
into  his  innermost  brain.  She  saw  what  was  fill 
ing  that*~brain  ;  it  was  one  great,  overpowering 
desire  to  go  down  to  the  bottom  of  that  hole,  to 
find  out  what  it  was  that  he  had  discovered. 

"  Margaret,  you  hurt  me !"  he  exclaimed,  sud 
denly.  In  the  intensity  of  the  emotion  excited 
by  what  she  had  discovered,  her  finger-nails  had 
nearly  penetrated  through  his  skin.  She  had  felt 
as  if  she  would  hold  him  and  hold  him  forever, 
but  she  released  his  hand. 

"  We  haven't  talked  about  that  button-hole  ma 
chine,"  she  said.  "  I  want  your  opinion  of  it." 
To  her  surprise,  Roland  began  immediately  to 
discuss  the  new  invention  of  which  she  had 
spoken,  and  asked  her  to  describe  it.  He  was  not 
at  all  anxious  now  to  tell  Margaret  what  he  was 
thinking  of  in  connection  with  the  track  of  the 
shell. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

CAPTAIN    HUBBELL    DECLINES    TO   GO  WHALING 

THE  most  impatient  person  on  board  the  Dip- 
sey  was  Captain  Jim  Hubbell.  Sarah  Block  was 
also  very  anxious  to  go  home  as  soon  as  matters 
could  be  arranged  for  the  return  journey,  and 
she  talked  a  great  deal  of  the  terrible  fate  which 
would  be  sure  to  overtake  them  if  they  should  be 
so  unfortunate  as  to  stay  until  the  season  of  the 
arctic  night ;  but,  after  all,  she  was  not  as  impa 
tient  as  Captain  Hubbell.  She  simply  wanted  to 
go  home  ;  but  he  not  only  greatly  desired  to  re 
turn  to  his  wife  and  family,  but  he  wanted  to  do 
something  else  before  he  started  south  ;  he  want 
ed  to  go  whaling.  He  considered  himself  the 
only  man  in  the  whole  world  who  had  a  chance 
to  go  whaling,  and  he  chafed  as  he  thought  of 
the  hindrances  which  Mr.  Gibbs  was  continually 
placing  in  the  way  of  this,  the  grandest  of  all 
sports. 

Mr.  Gibbs  was  a  mild  man,  and  rather  a  quiet 
one ;  but  he  thoroughly  understood  the  impor 
tance  of  the  investigations  he  was  pursuing  in  the 
polar  sea,  and  placed  full  value  upon  the  oppor 
tunity  which  had  come  to  him  of  examining  the 
wonders  of  a  region  hitherto  locked  up  from  civil 
ized  man.  Captain  Hubbell  was  astonished  to 


CAPTAIN   HUBBELL   DECLINES  TO   GO   WHALING    143 

find  that  Mr.  Gibbs  was  as  hard  and  unyielding 
as  an  iceberg  during  his  explorations  and  sound 
ings.  It  was  of  no  use  to  talk  to  him  of  whaling  ; 
he  had  work  before  him,  and  he  must  do  it. 

But  the  time  came  when  Mr.  Gibbs  relented. 
The  Dipsey  had  sailed  around  the  whole  boundary 
of  the  polar  sea  ;  observations,  surveys,  and  maps 
had  been  made,  and  the  general  geography  of  the 
region  had  been  fairly  well  determined.  There 
still  remained  some  weeks  of  the  arctic  day,  and 
it  was  desirable-  that  they  should  begin  their  re 
turn  journey  during  that  time  ;  so  Mr.  Gibbs  in 
formed  Captain  Jim  that  if  he  wanted  to  do  a 
little  whaling,  he  would  like  him  to  lose  no  time. 

Almost  from  the  time  of  their  arrival  in  the 
polar  sea  the  subject  of  whales  had  greatly  inter 
ested  everybody  on  the  Dipsey.  Even  Rovinski, 
who  had  been  released  from  his  confinement  af 
ter  a  few  days,  because  he  had  really  committed 
no  actual  crime  except  that  of  indulging  in  over 
leaping  ambition,  had  spent  every  available  min 
ute  of  leisure  in  looking  for  whales.  It  was 
strange  that  nothing  in  this  Northern  region  in 
terested  the  people  on  the  Dipsey  (with  the  sole 
exception  of  Mr.  Gibbs)  so  much  as  these  great 
fish,  which  seemed  to  be  the  only  visible  inhabi 
tants  of  the  polar  solitudes.  There  were  prob 
ably  white  bears  somewhere  on  the  icy  shores 
about  them,  but  they  never  showed  themselves ; 
and  if  birds  were  there,  they  did  not  fly  over  that 
sea. 

There  was  reason  to  suppose  that  there  were 
a  good  many  whales  in  the  polar  sea.  Wherever 
our  party  sailed,  lay  to,  or  anchored  for  a  time, 


144  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

they  were  very  sure,  before  long,  to  see  a  whale 
curving  his  shining  black  back  into  the  light,  or 
sending  two  beautiful  jets  of  water  up  into  the 
air.  Whenever  a  whale  was  seen,  somebody  on 
board  was  sure  to  remark  that  these  creatures  in 
this  part  of  the  world  seemed  to  be  very  tame. 
It  was  not  at  all  uncommon  to  see  one  disport 
himself  at  no  great  distance  from  the  vessel  for 
an  hour  or  more. 

"  If  I  could  get  among  a  school  of  whales  any 
where  around  Nantucket  and  find  'em  as  tame  as 
these  fellers,"  said  Captain  Jim,  "  I'd  give  a  boom 
to  the  whale-oil  business  that  it  hasn't  had  for 
forty  years." 

But  not  long  before  Mr.  Gibbs  told  the  captain 
that  he  might  go  whaling  if  he  felt  like  it,  the  old 
sailor  had  experienced  a  change  of  mind.  He 
had  become  a  most  ardent  student  of  whales.  In 
his  very  circumscribed  experience  when  a  young 
man  he  had  seen  whales,  but  they  had  generally 
been  a  long  way  off ;  and  as  the  old-fashioned 
method  of  rowing  after  them  in  boats  had  even 
then  been  abandoned  in  favor  of  killing  them  by 
means  of  the  rifled  cannon,  Captain  Hubbell  had 
not  seen  very  much  of  these  creatures  until  they 
had  been  towed  alongside.  But  now  he  could 
study  whales  at  his  leisure.  It  was  seldom  that 
he  had  to  wait  very  long  before  he  would  see  one 
near  enough  for  him  to  examine  it  with  a  glass, 
and  he  never  failed  to  avail  himself  of  such  op 
portunities. 

The  consequence  of  this  constant  and  careful 
inspection  was  the  conclusion  in  Captain  Hub- 
bell's  mind  that  there  was  only  one  whale  in 


CAPTAIN    HUBBELL    DECLINES   TO    GO   WHALING    145 

the  polar  sea.  He  had  noticed,  and  others  had 
noticed,  that  they  never  saw  two  at  once,  and  the 
captain  had  used  his  glass  so  often  and  so  well 
that  one  morning  he  stamped  his  foot  upon  the 
deck  and  said  to  Sammy  : 

"  I  believe  that's  the  same  whale  over  and  over 
and  over  ag'in.  I  know  him  like  a  book  ;  he  has 
his  ways  and  his  manners,  and  it  isn't  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  every  whale  has  the  same  ways 
and  manners.  He  comes  just  so  near  the  vessel, 
and  then  he  stops  and  blows.  Then  he  suns  his 
back  for  a  while,  and  then  he  throws  up  his  flukes 
and  sounds.  He  does  that  as  regular  as  if  he 
was  a  polar  clock.  I  know  the  very  shape  of  his 
flukes  ;  and  two  or  three  days  ago,  as  he  was 
soundin',  I  thought  that  the  tip  of  the  upper  one 
looked  as  if  it  had  been  damaged — as  if  he  had 
broken  it  floppin'  about  in  some  tight  place ;  and 
ever  since,  when  I  have  seen  a  whale,  I  have 
looked  for  the  tip  of  that  upper  fluke,  and  there's 
that  same  old  break.  Every  time  I  have  looked 
I  have  found  it.  It  can't  be  that  there  are  a  lot 
o'  whales  in  here  and  each  one  of  'em  with  a 
battered  fluke." 

"That  does  look  sort  o'  queer,"  said  Sammy, 
reflectively. 

"  Sammy  Block,"  said  Captain  Jim,  impressive 
ly,  "  it's  my  opinion  that  there's  only  one  whale 
in  this  here  polar  sea ;  an',  more  than  that,  it's 
my  opinion  that  there's  only  one  whale  in  this 
world,  an'  that  that  feller  we've  seen  is  the  one  ! 
Samuel  Block,  he's  the  last  whale  in  the  whole 
world !  Now  you  know  that  I  wanted  to  go 
a-whalin' — that's  natural  enough — but  since  Mr. 
10 


146  THE    GREAT   STONE    OF   SARDIS 

Gibbs  has  got  through,  and  has  said  that  I  could 
take  this  vessel  an'  go  a-whalin'  if  I  wanted  to — 
which  would  be  easy  enough,  for  we  have  got 
guns  aboard  which  would  kill  any  right-whale — I 
don't  want  to  go.  I  don't  want  to  lay  on  my 
dyin'  bed  an'  think  that  I'm  the  man  that  killed 
the  last  whale  in  the  world.  I'm  commandin'  this 
vessel,  and  I  sail  it  wherever  Mr.  Gibbs  tells  me 
to  sail  it ;  but  if  he  wants  the  bones  of  a  whale  to 
take  home  as  a  curiosity,  an'  tells  me  to  sail  this 
vessel  after  that  whale,  I  won't  do  it." 

"  I'm  with  you  there,"  said  Sammy.  u  I  have 
been  thinkin'  while  you  was  talkin',  an'  it's  my 
opinion  that  it's  not  only  the  last  whale  in  the 
world,  but  it's  purty  nigh  tame.  I  believe  it's  so 
glad  to  see  some  other  movin'  creature  in  this 
lonely  sea  that  it  wants  to  keep  company  with 
us  all  the  time.  No,  sir,  I  wouldn't  have  any 
thing  to  do  with  killin'  that  fish  !" 

The  opinions  of  the  captain  and  Sammy  were 
now  communicated  to  the  rest  of  the  company 
on  board,  and  nearly  all  of  them  thought  that 
they  had  had  such  an  idea  themselves.  The 
whale  certainly  looked  very  familiar  every  time 
he  showed  himself. 

To  Mr.  Gibbs  this  lonely  creature,  if  he  were 
such,  now  became  an  object  of  intense  interest. 
It  was  evidently  a  specimen  of  the  right-whale, 
once  common  in  the  Northern  seas,  skeletons  of 
which  could  be  seen  in  many  museums.  Nothing 
would  be  gained  to  science  by  his  capture,  and 
Mr.  Gibbs  agreed  with  the  others  that  it  would 
be  a  pity  to  harm  this,  the  last  of  his  race. 

In  thinking  and  talking  over  the  matter  Mr. 


CAPTAIN   HUBBELL    DECLINES   TO    GO   WHALING    147 

Gibbs  formed  a  theory  which  he  thought  would 
explain  the  presence  of  this  solitary  whale  in  the 
polar  sea.  He  thought  it  very  likely  that  it  had 
gotten  under  the  ice  and  had  pursued  its  northern 
journey  very  much  as  the  Dipsey  had  pursued 
hers,  and  had  at  last  emerged,  as  she  had,  into  the 
polar  sea  at  a  place  perhaps  as  shallow  as  that 
where  the  submarine  vessel  came  out  from  under 
the  ice. 

"  And  if  that's  the  case,"  said  Captain  Hubbell, 
"  it  is  ten  to  one  that  he  has  not  been  able  to  get 
out  again,  and  has  found  himself  here  caught  just 
as  if  he  was  in  a  trap.  Fishes  don't  like  to  swim 
into  tight  places.  They  may  do  it  once,  but  they 
don't  want  to  do  it  again.  It  is  this  disposition 
that  makes  'em  easy  to  catch  in  traps.  I  believe 
you  are  right,  Mr.  Gibbs.  I  believe  this  whale 
has  got  in  here  and  can't  get  out — or,  at  least,  he 
thinks  he  can't — and  nobody  knows  how  long  it's 
been  since  he  first  got  in.  It  may  have  been  a 
hundred  years  ago.  There's  plenty  o'  little  fish 
in  these  waters  for  him  to  eat,  and  he's  the  only 
one  there  is  to  feed." 

The  thought  that  in  this  polar  sea  with  them 
selves  was  a  great  whale,  which  was  probably  here 
simply  because  he  could  not  get  out,  had  a  de 
pressing  effect  upon  the  minds  of  the  party  on 
the  Dipsey.  There  was  perhaps  no  real  reason 
why  they  should  fear  the  fate  of  the  great  fish, 
but,  after  all,  this  subject  was  one  which  should 
be  very  seriously  considered.  The  latter  part  of 
their  passage  under  the  ice  had  been  very  hazard 
ous.  Had  they  struck  a  sharp  rock  below  them, 
or  had  they  been  pierced  by  a  jagged  mass  of  ice 


148  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP    SARDIS 

above  them,  there  probably  would  have  been  a 
speedy  end  of  the  expedition  ;  and  now,  having 
come  safely  out  of  that  dangerous  shallow  water, 
they  shrank  from  going  into  it  again. 

It  was  the  general  opinion  that  if  they  would 
sail  a  considerable  distance  to  the  eastward  they 
could  not  fail  to  find  a  deep  channel  by  which 
the  waters  of  this  sea  communicated  with  Baffin's 
Bay  ;  but  in  this  case  they  would  be  obliged  to 
leave  the  line  of  longitude  by  which  they  had 
safely  travelled  from  Cape  Tariff  to  the  pole  and 
seek  another  route  southward,  along  some  other 
line,  which  would  end  their  journey  they  knew 
not  where. 

"  I  am  cold,"  said  Sarah  Block.  "  At  first  I  got 
along  all  right,  with  all  these  furs,  and  goin' 
down-stairs  every  time  I  felt  chilly,  but  the  freez- 
in'  air  is  beginnin'  to  go  into  my  very  bones  like 
needles  ;  and  if  winter  is  comin'  on,  and  it's  goin' 
to  be  worse  than  this,  New  Jersey  is  the  place  for 
me.  But  there's  one  thing  that  chills  my  blood 
clammier  than  even  the  cold  weather,  and  that  is 
the  thought  of  that  whale  follerin'  us.  If  we  get 
down  into  those  shaller  places  under  the  ice  an' 
he  takes  it  into  his  head  to  come  along,  he'll  be 
worse  than  a  bull  in  a  china-shop.  I  don't  mean 
to  say  that  I  think  he'll  want  to  do  us  any  harm, 
for  he  has  never  shown  any  sign  of  such  a  feelin', 
but  if  he  takes  to  bouncin'  and  thrashin'  when  he 
scratches  himself  on  any  rocks,  it  '11  be  a  bad  box 
for  us  to  be  in." 

None  of  the  others  shared  these  special  fears  of 
Mrs.  Block,  but  they  were  all  as  much  disinclined 
as  she  was  to  begin  another  submarine  voyage  in 


CAPTAIN   HUBBELL   DECLINES   TO   GO    WHALING    149 

the  shallow  waters  which  they  had  been  so  glad 
to  leave. 

It  was  believed,  from  the  general  contour  of 
the  surrounding  region,  that  if  the  ice  were  all 
melted  away  it  would  be  seen  that  a  cape  pro 
jected  from  the  American  continent  eastward  at 
the  point  where  they  had  entered  the  polar  sea, 
and  that  it  was  in  crossing  the  submerged  con 
tinuation  of  this  cape  that  they  had  found  the 
shallow  water.  Beyond  and  southward  they  knew 
that  the  water  was  deep  and  safe.  If  they  could 
reach  that  portion  of  the  sea  without  crossing  the 
shallow  point,  they  would  have  no  fears  regard 
ing  their  return  voyage.  They  knew  how  far 
south  it  was  that  that  deep  water  lay,  and  the 
questions  before  them  related  to  the  best  means 
of  reaching  it. 

At  a  general  council  of  officers,  Sammy  and 
Captain  Hubbell  both  declared  that  they  were 
not  willing  to  take  any  other  path  homeward  ex 
cept  one  which  led  along  the  seventieth  line  of 
longitude.  That  had  brought  them  safely  up, 
and  it  would  take  them  safely  down.  If  they 
went  under  the  ice  at  some  point  eastward,  how 
were  they  to  find  the  seventieth  line  of  longitude  ? 
They  could  not  take  observations  down  there  ; 
and  they  might  have  to  go  south  on  some  other 
line,  which  would  take  them  nobody  knew  where. 
Mr.  Gibbs  said  little,  but  he  believed  that  it 
would  be  well  to  go  back  the  way  they  came. 

At  last  a  plan  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Marcy,  and 
adopted  without  dissent.  The  whole  country 
which  lay  in  the  direction  they  wished  to  travel 
seemed  to  be  an  immense  plain  of  ice  and  snow, 


150  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 

with  mountains  looming  up  towards  the  west  and 
in  the  far  southeast.  In  places  great  slabs  of  ice 
seemed  to  be  piled  up  into  craggy  masses,  but  in 
general  the  surface  of  the  country  was  quite  lev 
el,  indicating  underlying  water.  In  fact,  a  little 
east  of  the  point  where  they  had  entered  the  po 
lar  sea  great  cracks  and  reefs,  some  of  them  ex 
tending  nearly  a  mile  inward,  broke  up  the  shore 
line.  The  party  on  the  Dipscy  were  fully  able  to 
travel  over  smooth  ice  and  frozen  snow,  for  this 
contingency  had  been  thought  of  and  provided 
for  ;  but  to  take  the  Dipscy  on  an  overland  jour 
ney  would,  of  course,  be  impossible.  By  Mr. 
Marcy's  plan,  however,  it  was  thought  that  it 
would  be  quite  feasible  for  the  Dipsey  to  sail  in 
land  until  she  had  reached  a  point  where  they 
were  sure  the  deep  sea  lay  serenely  beneath  the 
ice  around  them. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

MR.  MARCY'S  CANAL 

THE  twelve  men  and  the  one  woman  on  board 
the  Dipsey,  now  lying  at  anchor  in  the  polar  sea, 
were  filled  with  a  warming  and  cheering  ardor  as 
they  began  their  preparations  for  the  homeward 
journey,  although  these  preparations  included 
what  was  to  all  of  them  a  very  painful  piece  of 
work.  It  was  found  that  it  would  be  absolutely 
necessary  to  disengage  themselves  from  the  elec 
tric  cord  which  in  all  their  voyaging  in  these  des 
olate  arctic  regions,  under  water  and  above  water, 
had  connected  them  with  the  Works  of  Roland 
Clewe  at  Sardis,  New  Jersey.  A  sufficient  length 
of  this  cord,  almost  too  slight  to  be  called  cable,  to 
reach  from  Cape  Tariff  to  the  pole,  with  a  margin 
adequate  for  all  probable  emergencies,  had  been 
placed  on  board  the  Dipscy,  and  it  was  expected 
that  on  her  return  these  slender  but  immensely 
strong  wires  would  be  wound  up,  instead  of  being 
let  out,  and  so  still  connect  the  vessel  with  Mr. 
Clewe's  office. 

But  the  Dipscy  had  sailed  in  such  devious  ways 
and  in  so  many  directions  that  she  had  laid  a 
great  deal  of  the  cable  upon  the  bottom  of  the 
polar  sea,  and  it  would  be  difficult,  or  perhaps  im 
possible,  to  sail  back  over  her  previous  tracks  and 


152  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

take  it  up  again ;  and  there  was  not  enough  of  it 
left  for  her  to  proceed  southward  very  far  and 
still  keep  up  her  telegraphic  communication. 
Consequently  it  was  considered  best,  upon  start 
ing  southward,  that  they  should  cut  loose  from  all 
connection  with  their  friends  and  the  rest  of  the 
world.  They  would  have  to  do  this  anyway  in  a 
short  time.  If  they  left  the  end  of  the  wire  in 
some  suitable  position  on  the  coast  of  the  polar 
sea,  it  might  prove  of  subsequent  advantage  to 
science,  whereas  if  they  cut  loose  when  they  were 
submerged  in  the  ocean,  this  cable  from  Cape 
Tariff  to  the  pole  must  always  be  absolutely  val 
ueless.  It  was  therefore  determined  to  build  a 
little  house,  for  which  they  had  the  material,  and 
place  therein  a  telegraph  instrument  connected 
with  the  wire,  and  provided  with  one  of  the  Col- 
lison  batteries,  which  would  remain  in  working 
order  with  a  charge  sufficient  to  last  for  forty 
years,  and  this,  with  a  ground  -  wire  run  down 
through  the  ice  to  the  solid  earth,  might  make 
telegraphic  communication  possible  to  some  sub 
sequent  visitor  to  the  pole. 

But  apart  from  the  necessity  of  giving  up  con 
nection  with  Sardis,  the  journey  did  not  seem  like 
such  a  strange  and  solemn  progress  through  un 
known  regions  as  the  northern  voyage  had  been. 
If  they  could  get  themselves  well  down  into  the 
deep  sea  at  a  point  on  the  seventieth  line  of  lon 
gitude,  they  would  sail  directly  south  with  every 
confidence  of  emerging  safely  into  Baffin's  Bay. 

The  latest  telegrams  between  Sardis  and  the 
polar  sea  were  composed  mostly  of  messages  of 
the  warmest  friendship  and  encouragement.  If 


MR.   MARCY  S    CANAL  153 

Mr.  Clewe  and  Mrs.  Raleigh  felt  any  fears  as  to 
the  success  of  the  first  part  of  the  return  journey, 
they  showed  no  signs  of  them,  and  Sammy  never 
made  any  reference  to  his  wife's  frequently  ex 
pressed  opinion  that  there  was  good  reason  to  be 
lieve  that  the  end  of  this  thing  would  be  that  the 
Dipsey,  with  everybody  on  board  of  her,  would 
suddenly,  by  one  of  those  mishaps  which  nobody 
can  prevent,  be  blown  into  fine  dust. 

Mr.  Marcy's  plan  was  a  very  simple  one.  The 
Dipsey  carried  a  great  store  of  explosive  appliances 
of  various  patterns  and  of  the  most  improved  kinds, 
and  some  of  them  of  immense  power,  and  Mr. 
Marcy  proposed  that  a  long  line  of  these  should 
be  laid  over  the  level  ice  and  then  exploded.  The 
ice  below  them  would  be  shivered  into  atoms,  and 
he  believed  that  an  open  channel  might  thus  be 
made,  through  which  the  Dipsey  might  easily  pro 
ceed.  Then  another  line  of  explosives  would  be 
laid  ahead  of  the  vessel,  and  the  length  of  the 
canal  increased.  This  would  be  a  slow  method  of 
proceeding,  but  it  was  considered  a  sure  one. 

As  to  the  progress  over  the  snow  and  ice  of  those 
who  were  to  lay  the  lines  of  shells,  that  would  be 
easy  enough.  It  had  been  supposed  that  it  might 
be  necessary  for  the  party  to  make  overland  trips, 
and  for  this  purpose  twenty  or  more  electric- 
motor  sledges  had  been  provided.  These  sledges 
were  far  superior  to  any  drawn  by  dogs  or  rein 
deer  ;  each  one  of  them,  mounted  on  broad  run 
ners  of  aluminium,  was  provided  with  a  small  en 
gine,  charged  at  the  vessel  with  electricity  enough 
to  last  a  week,  and  was  propelled  by  means  of  a 
light  metal  wheel  with  sharp  points  upon  its  out- 


154  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

er  rim.  This  wheel  was  under  the  fore  part  of  the 
sledge,  and,  revolving  rapidly,  its  points  caught  in 
the  ice  or  frozen  snow  and  propelled  the  sledge  at 
a  good  rate  of  speed.  The  wheel  could  be  raised 
or  lowered,  so  that  its  points  should  take  more  or 
less  hold  of  the  ice,  according  as  circumstances  de 
manded.  In  descending  a  declivity  it  could  be 
raised  entirely,  so  that  the  person  on  the  sledge 
might  coast,  and  it  could  at  any  time  be  brought 
down  hard  to  act  as  a  brake. 

As  soon  as  it  was  possible  to  get  everything 
in  order,  a  party  of  six  men,  on  electric  sledges, 
headed  by  Mr.  Marcy,  started  southward  over 
the  level  ice,  carrying  with  them  a  number  of 
shells,  which  were  placed  in  a  long  line,  and  con 
nected  by  an  electric  wire  with  the  Dipsey.  When 
the  party  had  returned  and  the  shells  were  ex 
ploded,  the  most  sanguine  anticipations  of  Mr. 
Marcy  were  realized.  A  magnificent  canal  three 
miles  long  lay  open  to  the  south. 

Now  the  anchor  of  the  Dipsey  was  weighed, 
and  our  party  bade  farewell  to  the  polar  sea.  The 
great  ball  buoy,  with  its  tall  pole  and  weather- 
vane,  floated  proudly  over  the  northern  end  of 
the  earth's  axis.  The  little  telegraph-house  was 
all  in  order,  and  made  as  secure  as  possible,  and 
under  it  the  Dipsey  people  made  a  "  cache "  of 
provisions,  leaving  a  note  in  several  languages 
to  show  what  they  had  done. 

"If  the  whale  wants  to  come  ashore  to  get 
somethin'  to  eat  and  send  a  message,  why,  here's 
his  chance  !"  said  Sammy  ;  "  but  it  strikes  me  that 
if  any  human  beings  ever  reach  this  pole  again, 
they  won't  come  the  way  we  came,  and  they'll 


MR.  MARCY'S  CANAL  155 

not  see  this  little  house,  for  it  won't  take  many 
snow-storms  —  even  if  they  are  no  worse  than 
some  of  those  we  have  seen  —  to  cover  it  up  out 
of  sight." 

"  I  don't  believe  the  slightest  good  will  ever  re 
sult  on  account  of  leaving  this  instrument  here," 
said  Mr.  Gibbs  ;  "  but  it  seemed  the  right  thing 
to  do,  and  I  would  not  be  satisfied  to  go  away 
and  leave  the  useless  end  of  the  cable  in  these 
regions.  We  will  set  up  the  highest  rod  we  have 
by  the  little  house,  and  then  we  can  do  no  more." 

When  the  Dipsey  started,  everybody  on  board 
looked  over  the  stern  to  see  if  they  could  catch  a 
glimpse  of  their  old  companion,  the  whale.  Near 
ly  all  of  them  were  sorry  that  it  was  necessary  to 
go  away  and  desert  this  living  being  in  his  lonely 
solitude.  They  had  not  entered  the  canal  whei; 
they  saw  the  whale.  Two  tall  farewell  spouts  rose 
into  the  air,  and  then  his  tail  with  its  damaged 
fluke  was  lifted  aloft  and  waved  in  a  sort  of  gi 
gantic  adieu.  Cheers  and  shouts  of  good-bye 
came  from  the  Dipsey,  and  the  whale  disappeared 
from  their  sight. 

"  I  hope  he  won't  come  up  under  us,"  said  Mrs. 
Block.  "  But  I  don't  believe  he  will  do  that.  He 
always  kept  at  a  respectful  distance,  and  as  long  as 
we  are  goin'  to  sail  in  a  canal,  I  wouldn't  mind  in 
the  least  if  he  followed  us.  But  as  for  goin'  under 
water  with  him — I  don't  want  anybody  to  speak 
of  it." 

Our  exploring  party  now  found  their  arctic  life 
much  more  interesting  than  it  had  lately  been, 
for,  from  time  to  time,  they  were  all  enabled  to 
leave  the  vessel  and  travel,  if  not  upon  solid  land, 


156  THE   GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 

upon  very  solid  ice.  The  Dipsey  carried  several 
small  boats,  and  even  Sarah  Block  frequently 
landed  and  took  a  trip  upon  a  motor  sledge. 
Sometimes  the  ice  was  rough,  or  the  frozen 
snow  was  piled  up  into  hillocks,  and  in  such 
cases  it  was  easy  enough  to  walk  and  draw  the 
light  sledges  ;  but  as  a  general  thing  the  people 
on  the  sledges  were  able  to  travel  rapidly  and 
pleasantly.  The  scenery  was  rather  monotonous, 
with  its  everlasting  stretches  of  ice  and  snow,  but 
in  the  far  distance  the  mountains  loomed  up  in 
the  beautiful  colors  given  them  by  an  arctic  at 
mosphere,  and  the  rays  of  the  sun  still  brighten 
ed  the  landscape  at  all  hours.  Occasionally  ani 
mals,  supposed  to  be  arctic  foxes,  were  seen  at  a 
great  distance,  and  there  were  those  in  the  com 
pany  who  declared  that  they  had  caught  sight  of 
a  bear.  But  hunting  was  not  encouraged.  The 
party  had  no  need  of  fresh  meat,  and  there  was 
important  work  to  be  done  which  should  not  be 
interfered  with  by  sporting  expeditions. 

There  were  days  of  slow  progress,  but  of  varied 
and  often  exciting  experiences,  for  sometimes  the 
line  of  Mr.  Marcy's  canal  lay  through  high  masses 
of  ice,  and  here  the  necessary  blasting  was  often 
of  a  very  startling  character.  They  expected  to 
cease  their  overland  journey  before  they  reached 
the  mountains,  which  on  the  south  and  west  were 
piled  up  much  nearer  to  them  than  those  in  other 
quarters,  but  they  were  surprised  to  find  their 
way  stopped  much  sooner  than  they  had  expect 
ed  it  would  be  by  masses  of  icebergs,  which  stood 
up  in  front  of  them  out  of  the  snowy  plain. 

When  they  were  within  a  few  miles  of  these 


MR.   MARCYS   CANAL  157 

glittering  eminences  they  ceased  further  opera 
tions  and  held  a  council.  It  was  perfectly  pos 
sible  to  blow  a  great  hole  in  the  ice  and  descend 
into  the  sea  at  this  point,  but  they  would  have 
preferred  going  farther  south  before  beginning 
their  submarine  voyage.  To  the  eastward  of  the 
icebergs  they  could  see  with  their  glasses  great 
patches  of  open  water,  and  this  would  have  pre 
vented  the  making  of  a  canal  around  the  ice 
bergs,  for  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  sur 
vey  the  route  on  sledges  or  to  lay  the  line  of 
bombs. 

A  good  deal  of  discussion  followed,  during 
which  Captain  Hubbell  strongly  urged  the  plan 
of  breaking  a  path  to  the  open  water,  and  finding 
out  what  could  be  done  in  the  way  of  sailing  south 
in  regular  nautical  fashion.  If  the  Dipsey  could 
continue  her  voyage  above  water  he  was  in  favor 
of  her  doing  it,  but  even  Captain  Jim  Hubbell 
could  give  no  good  reason  for  believing  that  if 
the  vessel  got  into  the  open  water  the  party 
would  not  be  obliged  to  go  into  winter-quarters 
in  these  icy  regions ;  for  in  a  very  few  weeks  the 
arctic  winter  would  be  upon  them.  Once  under 
the  water,  they  would  not  care  whether  it  was 
light  or  dark,  but  in  the  upper  air  it  would  be 
quite  another  thing. 

So  Captain  Hubbell's  plan  was  given  up,  but  it 
was  generally  agreed  that  it  would  be  a  very  wise 
thing,  before  they  took  any  further  steps,  to  as 
cend  one  of  the  icebergs  in  front  of  them  and  see 
what  was  on  the  other  side. 

The  mountain-climbing  party  consisted  of  Mr. 
Gibbs,  Mr.  Marcy,  and  three  of  the  most  active 


158  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP    SARDIS 

of  the  men.  Sammy  Block  wanted  to  go  with 
them,  but  his  wife  would  not  allow  him  to  do  it. 

"You  can  take  possession  of  poles,  Sammy," 
said  she,  "  for  that  is  the  thing  you  are  good  at, 
but  when  it  comes  to  slidin'  down  icebergs  on  the 
small  of  your  back  you  are  out  of  place  ;  and  if 
I  get  that  house  that  Mr.  Clewe  lives  in  now,  but 
which  he  is  goin'  to  give  up  when  he  gets  mar 
ried,  I  don't  want  to  live  there  alone.  I  can't 
think  of  nothin'  dolefuler  than  a  widow  with  a 
polar  rheumatism,  and  that's  what  I'm  pretty 
sure  I'm  goin'  to  have." 

The  ascent  of  the  nearest  iceberg  was  not  such 
a  difficult  piece  of  work  as  it  would  have  been  in 
the  days  when  Sammy  Block  and  Captain  Hub- 
bell  were  boys.  The  climbers  wore  ice-shoes  with 
leather  suckers  on  the  soles,  such  as  the  feet  of 
flies  are  furnished  with,  so  that  it  was  almost  im 
possible  for  them  to  slip  ;  and  when  they  came 
to  a  sloping  surface,  where  it  was  too  steep  for 
them  to  climb,  they  made  use  of  a  motor  sledge 
furnished  with  a  wheel  different  from  the  others. 
Instead  of  points,  this  wheel  had  on  its  outer  rim 
a  series  of  suckers,  similar  to  those  upon  the  soles 
of  the  shoes  of  the  party.  As  the  wheel,  which 
was  of  extraordinary  strength,  revolved,  it  held 
its  rim  tightly  to  whatever  surface  it  was  pressed 
against,  without  reference  to  the  angle  of  said 
surface.  In  1941,  with  such  a  sledge,  Martin  Gal- 
linet,  a  Swiss  guide,  ascended  seventy-five  feet 
of  a  perpendicular  rock  face  on  Monte  Rosa.  The 
sledge,  slowly  propelled  by  its  wheel,  went  up  the 
face  of  the  rock  as  if  it  had  been  a  fly  climbing 
up  a  pane  of  glass,  and  Gallinet,  suspended  below 


A    I'KKILOUS    FEAT 


MR.  MARCY'S  CANAL  159 

this  sledge  by  a  strap  under  his  arms,  was  hauled 
to  the  top  of  the  precipice. 

It  was  not  necessary  to  climb  any  such  preci 
pices  in  ascending  an  iceberg,  but  there  were 
some  steep  slopes,  and  up  these  the  party  were 
safely  carried,  one  by  one,  by  what  they  called 
their  Fly-foot  Sledge. 

After  an  hour  or  two  of  climbing,  our  party 
safely  reached  the  topmost  point  of  the  iceberg, 
and  began  to  gaze  about  them.  They  soon  found 
that  beyond  them  there  were  other  peaks  and 
pinnacles,  and  that  it  would  have  been  difficult  to 
make  a  circuit  which  would  enable  them  to  con 
tinue  Mr.  Marcy's  plan  of  a  canal  along  the  level 
ice.  Far  beyond  them,  to  the  south,  ice  hills  and 
ice  mountains  were  scattered  here  and  there. 

Suddenly  Mr.  Gibbs  gave  a  shout  of  surprise. 

"  I  have  been  here  before,"  said.  he. 

"Of  course  you  have,"  replied  Mr.  Marcy. 
"  This  is  Lake  Shiver.  Don't  you  see,  away  over 
there  on  the  other  side  of  the  open  water  below 
us,  that  little  dark  spot  in  the  icy  wall  ?  That  is 
the  frozen  polar  bear.  Take  your  glass  and  see 
if  it  isn't." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE    ICY   GATEWAY 

WHEN  Mr.  Gibbs  and  his  party  returned  to  the 
Dipsey,  after  descending  the  iceberg,  their  report 
created  a  lively  sensation. 

"Why,  it's  like  goin'  home,"  said  Mrs.  Block. 
"  Perhaps  I  may  find  my  shoes." 

It  was  not  a  very  strange  thing  that  they 
should  have  again  met  with  this  little  ice-locked 
lake,  for  they  had  endeavored  to  return  by  a 
route  as  directly  south  as  the  other  had  been  di 
rectly  north.  But  no  one  had  expected  to  see 
the  lake  again,  and  they  were  not  only  surprised, 
but  pleased  and  encouraged.  Here  was  a  spot 
where  they  knew  the  water  was  deep  enough  for 
perfectly  safe  submarine  navigation,  and  if  they 
could  start  here  under  the  ice  they  would  feel 
quite  sure  that  they  would  meet  with  no  obsta 
cles  on  the  rest  of  their  voyage. 

As  there  was  no  possible  entrance  to  this  lake 
from  the  point  where  the  Dipsey  now  lay  at  the 
end  of  her  canal,  Sammy  proposed  that  they 
should  make  a  descent  into  the  water  at  the 
place  where  they  were,  if,  after  making  sound 
ings,  they  should  find  the  depth  sufficient.  Then 
they  might  proceed  southward  as  well  as  if  they 
should  start  from  Lake  Shiver. 


THE    ICY    GATEWAY  l6l 

But  this  did  not  suit  Mr.  Gibbs.  He  had  a 
very  strong  desire  to  reach  the  waters  of  the  lit 
tle  lake,  because  he  knew  that  at  their  bottom 
lay  the  telegraphic  cable  which  he  had  been 
obliged  to  abandon,  and  he  had  thought  he  might 
be  able  to  raise  this  cable  and  re-establish  tele 
graphic  communication  with  Cape  Tariff  and 
New  Jersey. 

Sammy  thought  that  Mr.  Gibbs's  desire  could 
be  accomplished  by  sinking  into  the  water  in 
which  they  now  lay  and  sailing  under  the  ice 
bergs  to  the  lake,  but  Mr.  Gibbs  did  not  favor 
this.  He  was  afraid  to  go  under  the  icebergs. 
To  be  sure,  they  had  already  sailed  under  one  of 
them  when  the  Dipsey  had  made  her  way  north 
ward  from  the  lake,  but  they  had  found  that  the 
depth  of  water  varied  very  much  in  different 
places,  and  the  icebergs  in  front  of  them  might 
be  heavier,  and  therefore  more  deeply  sunken, 
than  those  which  they  had  previously  passed 
under. 

If  it  were  possible  to  extend  their  canal  to 
Lake  Shiver,  Mr.  Gibbs  wanted  to  do  it,  but  if 
they  should  fail  in  this,  then,  of  course,  they 
would  be  obliged  to  go  down  at  this  or  some 
adjacent  spot. 

"  It's  all  very  well,"  said  Captain  Hubbell,  who 
was  a  little  depressed  in  spirits  because  the  time 
was  rapidly  approaching  when  he  would  no  long 
er  command  the  vessel,  "  but  it's  one  thing  to 
blow  a  canal  through  fields  of  flat  ice,  and  an 
other  to  make  it  all  the  way  through  an  iceberg ; 
but  if  you  think  you  can  do  it,  I  am  content.  I'd 
like  to  sail  above  water  just  as  far  as  we  can  go." 


1 62  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP   SARDIS 

Mr.  Gibbs  had  been  studying  the  situation,  and 
some  ideas  relating  to  the  solution  of  the  prob 
lem  before  him  were  forming  themselves  in  his 
mind.  At  last  he  hit  upon  a  plan  which  he 
thought  might  open  the  waters  of  Lake  Shiver 
to  the  Dipsey,  and,  as  it  would  not  take  very  long 
to  test  the  value  of  his  scheme,  it  was  determined 
to  make  the  experiment. 

There  were  but  few  on  board  who  did  not  know 
that  if  a  needle  were  inserted  into  the  upper  part 
of  a  large  block  of  ice,  and  were  then  driven 
smartly  into  it,  the  ice  would  split.  Upon  this 
fact  Mr.  Gibbs  based  his  theory  of  making  an  en 
trance  to  the  lake. 

A  climbing  party,  larger  than  the  previous 
one,  set  out  for  the  iceberg,  carrying  with  them, 
on  several  sledges,  a  long  and  heavy  iron  rod, 
which  was  a  piece  of  the  extra  machinery  on  the 
Dipsey,  and  some  explosives  of  a  special  kind. 

When  the  iceberg  had  been  reached,  several  of 
the  party  ascended  with  a  hoisting  apparatus, 
and  with  this  the  rod  was  hauled  to  the  top  and 
set  up  perpendicularly  on  a  central  spot  at  the 
summit  of  the  iceberg,  the  pointed  end  down 
ward,  and  a  bomb  of  great  power  fastened  to  its 
upper  end.  This  bomb  was  one  designed  to  exert 
its  whole  explosive  power  in  one  direction,  and 
it  was  so  placed  that  this  force  would  be  exerted 
downward.  When  all  was  ready,  the  electric-wire 
attachment  to  the  bomb  was  carried  down  the 
iceberg  and  carefully  laid  on  the  ice  as  the  party 
returned  to  the  Dipsey. 

Everybody,  of  course,  was  greatly  interested 
in  this  experiment.  The  vessel  was  at  least  two 


THE    ICY   GATEWAY  163 

miles  from  the  iceberg,  but  in  the  clear  atmos 
phere  the  glittering  eminence  could  be  plainly 
seen,  and,  with  a  glass,  the  great  iron  rod  stand 
ing  high  up  on  its  peak  was  perfectly  visible. 
All  were  on  deck  when  Mr.  Gibbs  stood  ready  to 
discharge  the  bomb  on  top  of  the  rod,  and  all 
eyes  were  fixed  upon  the  iceberg. 

There  was  an  explosion — not  very  loud,  even 
considering  the  distance  —  and  those  who  had 
glasses  saw  the  rod  disappear  downward.  Then 
a  strange  grating  groan  came  over  the  snow- 
white  plain,  and  the  great  iceberg  was  seen  to 
split  in  half,  its  two  peaks  falling  apart  from 
each  other.  The  most  distant  of  the  two  great 
sections  toppled  far  backward,  and  with  a  great 
crash  turned  entirely  over,  its  upper  part  being 
heavier  than  its  base.  It  struck  an  iceberg  be 
hind  it,  slid  upon  the  level  ice  below,  crashed 
through  this,  and  sank  out  of  sight.  Then  it  was 
seen  to  slowly  rise  again,  but  this  time  with  its 
base  uppermost.  The  other  and  nearest  section, 
much  smaller,  fell  against  an  adjacent  iceberg, 
where  it  remained  leaning  for  some  minutes, 
but  soon  assumed  an  erect  position.  The  line 
of  cleavage  had  not  been  perpendicular,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  base  of  the  original  iceberg 
remained  upon  the  nearer  section. 

When  the  scene  of  destruction  had  been  thor 
oughly  surveyed  from  the  deck  of  the  Dipsey, 
volunteers  were  called  for  to  go  and  investigate 
the  condition  of  affairs  near  the  broken  iceberg. 
Four  men,  including  Mr.  Gibbs  and  Mr.  Marcy, 
went  out  upon  this  errand,  a  dangerous  one,  for 
they  did  not  know  how  far  the  ice  in  their  direc- 


164  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

tion  might  have  been  shattered  or  weakened  by 
the  wreck  of  the  iceberg.  They  found  that  little 
or  no  damage  had  been  done  to  the  ice  between 
them  and  the  nearer  portion  of  the  berg,  and, 
pursuing  an  eastward  course  on  their  sledges, 
they  were  enabled  to  look  around  this  lofty  mass 
and  see  a  body  of  open  water  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  more  distant  section  almost  covered  with 
floating  ice.  Pressing  forward  still  farther  east 
ward,  and  going  as  far  south  as  they  dared,  they 
were  enabled  at  last  to  see  that  the  two  portions 
of  the  original  iceberg  were  floating  at  a  consid 
erable  distance  from  each  other,  and  that,  there 
fore,  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  the  existence 
of  an  open  passage  between  them  into  the  lake. 

When  the  party  returned  with  this  report  work 
was  suspended,  but  the  next  day  blasting  parties 
went  out.  The  canal  was  extended  to  the  base 
of  the  nearer  iceberg,  a  small  boat  was  rowed 
around  it,  and  after  a  careful  survey  it  was  found 
that  unless  the  sections  of  the  iceberg  moved  to 
gether  there  was  plenty  of  room  for  the  Dipsey 
to  pass  between  them. 

When  the  small  boat  and  the  sledges  had  re 
turned  to  the  vessel,  and  everything  was  prepared 
for  the  start  along  the  canal  and  into  the  lake, 
one  of  the  men  came  to  Captain  Hubbell  and  re 
ported  that  the  Pole  Rovinski  was  absent.  For 
one  brief  moment  a  hope  arose  in  the  soul  of 
Samuel  Block  that  this  man  might  have  fallen 
overboard  and  floated  under  the  ice,  but  he  was 
not  allowed  to  entertain  this  pleasant  thought. 
Mr.  Marcy  had  seized  a  glass,  and  with  it  was 
sweeping  the  icy  plain  in  all  directions. 


THE    ICY   GATEWAY  165 

"  Hello  !"  he  cried.  "  Some  one  come  here  !  Do 
you  see  that  moving  speck  off  there  to  the  north  ? 
I  believe  that  is  the  scoundrel." 

Several  glasses  were  now  directed  to  the  spot. 

"  It  is  the  Pole  !"  cried  Sammy.  "  He  has  sto 
len  a  sledge  and  is  running  away  !" 

"  Where  on  earth  can  he  be  running  to  ?"  ex 
claimed  Mr.  Gibbs.  "  The  man  is  insane  I" 

Mr.  Marcy  said  nothing.  His  motor  sledge,  a 
very  fine  one,  furnished  with  an  unusually  large 
wheel,  was  still  on  the  deck.  He  rushed  tow 
ards  it. 

"  I  am  going  after  him  !"  he  shouted.  "  Let 
somebody  come  with  me.  He's  up  to  mischief  ! 
He  must  not  get  away  !" 

"  Mischief  !"  exclaimed  Mr.  Gibbs.  "  I  don't 
see  what  mischief  he  can  do.  He  can't  live  out 
here  without  shelter  ;  he'll  be  dead  before  morn- 
ing/' 

"  Not  he,"  cried  Sammy.  "  He's  a  born  devil, 
with  a  dozen  lives !  Take  a  gun  with"  you,  Mr. 
Marcy,  and  shoot  him  if  you  can't  catch  him  !" 

Mr.  Marcy  took  no  gun  ;  he  had  no  time  to 
Stop  for  that.  In  a  few  moments  he  was  on  the 
ice  with  his  sledge,  then  away  he  went  at  full 
speed  towards  the  distant  moving  black  object. 

Two  men  were  soon  following  Mr.  Marcy,  but 
they  were  a  long  way  behind  him,  for  their  sledges 
did  not  carry  them  at  the  speed  with  which  he 
was  flying  over  the  ice  and  snow. 

It  was  not  long  before  Rovinski  discovered 
that  he  was  pursued,  and,  frequently  turning  his 
head  backward,  he  saw  that  the  foremost  sledge 
was  gaining  upon  him  ;  but,  crouching  as  low 


1 66  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP    SARDIS 

as  he  could  to  avoid  a  rifle-shot,  he  kept  on  his 
way. 

But  he  could  not  help  turning  his  head  every 
now  and  then,  and  at  one  of  these  moments  his 
sledge  struck  a  projecting  piece  of  ice  and  was 
suddenly  overturned.  Rovinski  rolled  out  on  the 
hard  snow,  and  the  propelling  wheel  revolved  rap 
idly  in  the  air.  The  Pole  gathered  himself  up 
quickly  and  turned  his  sledge  back  into  its  proper 
position.  He  did  this  in  such  haste  that  he  for 
got  that  the  wheel  was  still  revolving,  and  there 
fore  was  utterly  unprepared  to  see  the  sledge 
start  away  at  a  great  speed,  leaving  him  stand 
ing  on  the  snow,  totally  overwhelmed  by  aston 
ishment  and  rage. 

Marcy  was  near  enough  to  view  this  catastro 
phe,  and  he  stopped  his  sledge  and  burst  out 
laughing.  Now  that  the  fellow  was  secure,  Marcy 
would  wait  for  his  companions.  When  the  others 
had  reached  him,  the  three  proceeded  towards  Ro 
vinski,  who  was  standing  facing  them  and  wait 
ing.  As  soon  as  they  came  within  speaking  dis 
tance  he  shouted  : 

"  Stop  where  you  are  !  I  have  a  pistol,  and  I 
will  shoot  you  in  turn  if  you  come  any  nearer. 
I  am  a  free  man  !  I  have  a  right  to  go  where  I 
please.  I  have  lost  my  sledge,  but  I  can  walk. 
Go  back  and  tell  your  masters  I  have  left  their 
service." 

Mr.  Marcy  reflected  a  moment.  He  was  armed, 
but  it  was  with  a  very  peculiar  weapon,  intended 
for  use  on  shipboard  in  case  of  mutinous  disturb 
ances.  It  was  a  pistol  with  a  short  range,  carrying 
an  ammonia  shell.  If  he  could  get  near  enough 


THE    ICY    GATEWAY  167 

to  Rovinski,  he  could  settle  his  business  very 
quickly  ;  but  he  believed  that  the  pistol  carried 
by  the  Pole  was  of  the  ordinary  kind,  and  dan 
gerous. 

Something  must  be  done  immediately.  It  was 
very  cold  ;  they  must  soon  return  to  the  vessel. 
Suddenly,  without  a  word,  Mr.  Marcy  started  his 
sledge  forward  at  its  utmost  speed.  The  Pole 
gave  a  loud  cry  and  raised  his  right  hand,  in 
which  he  held  a  heavy  pistol.  For  some  minutes 
he  had  been  standing,  his  glove  off,  and  this  pis 
tol  clasped  in  his  hand.  He  was  so  excited  that 
he  had  entirely  forgotten  the  intense  coldness  of 
the  air.  He  attempted  to  aim  the  pistol  and  to 
curl  his  forefinger  around  the  trigger,  but  his 
hand  and  wrist  were  stiff,  his  fingers  were  stiff. 
His  pistol-barrel  pointed  at  an  angle  downward  ; 
he  had  no  power  to  straighten  it  or  to  pull  the 
trigger.  Standing  thus,  his  face  white  with  the 
rage  of  impotence  and  his  raised  hand  shaking 
as  if  it  had  been  palsied,  he  was  struck  full  in  the 
face  with  the  shell  from  Marcy's  wide -mouthed 
pistol.  The  brittle  capsule  burst,  and  in  a  sec 
ond,  insensible  from  the  fumes  of  the  powerful 
ammonia  it  contained,  Rovinski  fell  flat  upon  the 
snow. 

When  the  Pole  had  been  taken  back  to  the  ves 
sel,  and  had  been  confined  below,  Mr.  Gibbs,  ut 
terly  unable  to  comprehend  the  motives  of  the 
man  in  thus  rushing  off  to  die  alone  amid  the 
rigors  of  the  polar  regions,  went  down  to  talk  to 
him.  At  first  Rovinski  refused  to  make  any  an 
swers  to  the  questions  put  to  him,  but  at  last,  ap 
parently  enraged  by  the  imputation  that  he  must 


1 68  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 

be  a  weak-minded,  almost  idiotic,  man  to  behave 
himself  in  such  an  imbecile  fashion,  he  suddenly 
blazed  out : 

"  Imbecile  !"  he  cried.  "  Weak  -  minded  !  If  it 
had  not  been  for  that  accursed  sledge,  I  would  have 
shown  you  what  sort  of  an  imbecile  I  am.  I  can't 
get  away  now,  and  I  will  tell  you  how  I  would  have 
been  an  idiot.  I  would  have  gone  back  to  the  pole, 
at  least  to  the  little  house,  where,  like  a  fool,  you 
left  the  end  of  your  cable  open  to  me,  open  to  any 
body  on  board  who  might  be  brave  enough  to  take 
advantage  of  your  imbecility.  I  had  food  enough 
with  me  to  last  until  I  got  back  to  the  pole,  and  I 
knew  of  the  *  cache '  which  you  left  there.  Long, 
long  before  you  ever  reached  Cape  Tariff,  and  be 
fore  your  master  was  ready  to  announce  your  dis 
coveries  to  the  world,  I  would  have  been  using 
your  cable.  I  would  have  been  announcing  my 
discoveries,  not  in  a  cipher,  but  in  plain  words  ; 
not  to  Sardis,  but  to  the  Observatory  at  St.  Peters 
burg.  I  would  have  proclaimed  the  discovery  of 
the  pole,  I  would  have  told  of  your  observations 
and  your  experiments  ;  for  I  am  a  man  of  science, 
I  know  these  things.  I  would  have  had  the  honor 
and  the  glory.  The  north  pole  would  have  been 
Rovinski's  Pole ;  that  open  sea  would  have  been 
Rovinski's  Sea.  All  you  might  have  said  after 
wards  would  have  amounted  to  nothing  ;  it  would 
have  been  an  old  story  ;  I  would  have  announced 
it  long  before.  The  glory  would  have  been  mine 
— mine  for  all  ages  to  come." 

"  But,  you  foolish  man,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Gibbs, 
"you  would  have  perished  up  there  —  no  fire,  no 
shelter  but  that  cabin,  and  very  little  food.  Even 


THE    ICY   GATEWAY  169 

if,  kept  warm  and  alive  by  your  excitement  and 
ambition,  you  had  been  able  to  send  one  message, 
you  would  have  perished  soon  afterwards." 

"  What  of  that  ?"  said  Rovinski.  "  I  would  have 
sent  my  message  ;  I  would  have  told  how  the 
north  pole  was  found.  The  glory  and  the  honor 
would  have  been  mine." 

When  Mr.  Gibbs  related  what  was  said  at  this 
interview,  Sammy  remarked  that  it  was  a  great 
pity  to  interfere  with  ambition  like  that,  and 
Sarah  acknowledged  to  her  husband,  but  to  him 
only,  that  she  had  never  felt  her  heart  sink  as  it 
had  sunk  when  she  saw  Mr.  Marcy  coming  back 
with  that  black -faced  and  black-hearted  Pole 
with  him. 

"I  felt  sure,"  said  she,  "that  we  had  got  rid  of 
him,  and  that  after  this  we  would  not  be  a  party 
of  thirteen.  It  does  seem  to  me  as  if  it  is  wicked 
to  take  such  a  creature  back  to  civilized  people. 
It's  like  carrying  diseases  about  in  your  clothes, 
as  people  used  to  do  in  olden  times." 

"  Well,"  said  Sammy,  "  if  we  could  fumigate  this 
vessel  and  feel  sure  that  only  the  bad  germs  would 
shrivel,  I'd  be  in  favor  of  doin'  it." 

In  less  than  two  hours  after  the  return  of  Mr. 
Marcy  with  his  prisoner,  the  Dipsey  started  along 
the  recently  made  canal,  carefully  rounded  the 
nearer  portion  of  the  broken  iceberg,  and  slowly 
sailed  between  the  two  upright  sections.  These 
were  sufficiently  far  apart  to  afford  a  perfectly 
safe  passage,  but  the  hearts  of  those  who  gazed 
up  on  their  shining,  precipitous  sides  were  filled 
with  a  chilling  horror,  for  if  a  wind  had  sudden 
ly  sprung  up,  these  two  great  sections  of  the  icy 


1 70  THE   GREAT   STONE    OF    SARDIS 

mountain  might  have   come  together,  cracking 
the  Dipsey  as  if  it  had  been  a  nut. 

But  no  wind  sprang  up  ;  the  icebergs  remained 
as  motionless  as  if  they  had  been  anchored,  and 
the  Dipsey  entered  safely  the  harboring  waters  of 
Lake  Shiver. 


CHAPTER  XX 


FOR  several  days  the  subject  of  the  great  per 
foration  made  by  the  automatic  shell  was  not 
mentioned  between  Margaret  and  Roland.  This 
troubled  her  a  great  deal,  for  she  thoroughly  un 
derstood  her  lover's  mind,  and  she  knew  that  he 
had  something  important  to  say  to  her,  but  was 
waiting  until  he  had  fully  elaborated  his  intended 
statement.  She  said  nothing  about  it,  because  it 
was  impossible  for  her  to  do  so.  It  made  her  feel 
sick  even  to  think  of  it,  and  yet  she  was  thinking 
of  it  all  the  time. 

At  last  he  came  to  her  one  morning,  his  face 
pale  and  serious.  She  knew  the  moment  her  eyes 
fell  upon  him  that  he  had  come  to  tell  her  some 
thing,  and  what  it  was  he  had  to  tell. 

"  Margaret,"  said  he,  beginning  to  speak  as  soon 
as  he  had  seated  himself,  "  I  have  made  up  my  mind 
about  that  shaft.  It  would  be  absolutely  wicked 
if  I  were  not  to  go  down  to  the  bottom  and  see 
what  is  there.  I  have  discovered  something — 
something  wonderful — and  I  do  not  know  what  it 
is.  I  can  form  no  ideas  about  it,  there  is  nothing 
on  which  I  can  base  any  theory.  I  have  done  my 
best  to  solve  this  problem  without  going  down, 


172  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF   SARDIS 

but  my  telescope  reveals  nothing,  my  camera 
shows  me  nothing  at  all." 

She  sat  perfectly  quiet,  pallid  and  listening. 

"  I  have  thought  over  this  thing  by  day  and  by 
,  night,"  he  continued,  "  but  the  conclusion  forces 
itself  upon  me,  steadily  and  irresistibly,  that  it  is 
my  duty  to  descend  that  shaft.  I  have  carefully 
considered  everything,  positively  everything,  con 
nected  with  the  safety  of  such  a  descent.  The 
air  in  the  cavity  where  my  shell  now  rests  is  per 
fectly  good  ;  I  have  tested  it.  The  temperature 
is  simply  warm,  and  there  is  no  danger  of  quick 
sands  or  anything  of  that  sort,  for  my  shell  still 
rests  as  immovable  as  when  I  first  saw  it  below 
the  bottom  of  the  shaft. 

"As  to  the  distance  I  should  have  to  descend, 
when  you  come  to  consider  it,  it  is  nothing. 
What  is  fourteen  miles  in  a  tunnel  through  a 
mountain  ?  Some  of  those  on  the  Great  Straight- 
cut  Pacific  Railroad  are  forty  miles  in  length,  and 
trains  run  backward  and  forward  every  day  with 
out  any  one  considering  the  danger  ;  and  yet 
there  is  really  more  danger  from  one  of  those  tun 
nels  caving  in  than  in  my  perpendicular  shaft, 
where  caving  in  is  almost  impossible. 

"  As  to  the  danger  which  attends  so  great  a  de 
scent,  I  have  thoroughly  provided  against  that. 
In  fact,  I  do  not  see,  if  I  carry  out  my  plans,  how 
there  could  be  any  danger,  more  than  constantly 
surrounds  us,  no  matter  what  we  are  doing.  In 
the  first  place,  we  should  not  think  of  that  great 
depth.  If  a  man  fell  down  any  one  of  the  deep 
shafts  in  our  silver  mines,  he  would  be  as  thor 
oughly  deprived  of  life  as  if  he  should  fall  down 


my  shaft.  But  to  fall  down  mine — and  I  want 
you  to  consider  this,  Margaret,  and  thoroughly 
understand  it  —  would  be  almost  impossible.  I 
have  planned  out  all  the  machinery  and  appli 
ances  which  would  be  necessary,  and  I  want  to 
describe  them  to  you,  and  then,  I  am  sure,  you 
will  see  for  yourself  that  the  element  of  danger  is 
more  fully  eliminated  than  if  I  should  row  you 
on  the  lake  in  a  little  boat." 

She  sat  quiet,  still  pale,  still  listening,  her  eyes 
fixed  upon  him. 

"  I  have  devised  a  car,"  he  said,  *'  in  which  I  can  sit 
comfortably  and  smoke  my  cigar  while  I  make  the 
descent.  This,  at  the  easy  and  steady  rate  at  which 
my  engines  would  move,  would  occupy  less  than 
three  hours.  I  could  go  a  good  deal  faster  if  I 
wanted  to,  but  this  would  be  fast  enough.  Think  of 
that — fourteen  miles  in  three  hours  !  It  would  be 
considered  very  slow  and  easy  travelling  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth.  This  car  would  be  suspend 
ed  by  a  double  chain  of  the  very  best  toughened 
steel,  which  would  be  strong  enough  to  hold  ten 
cars  the  weight  of  mine.  The  windlass  would  be 
moved  by  an  electric  engine  of  sufficient  power 
to  do  twenty  times  the  work  I  should  require  of 
it,  but  in  order  to  make  everything  what  might 
be  called  supersafe,  there  would  be  attached  to 
the  car  another  double  chain,  similar  to  the  first, 
and  this  would  be  wound  upon  another  windlass 
and  worked  by  another  engine,  as  powerful  as  the 
first  one.  Thus,  even  if  one  of  these  double 
chains  should  break — an  accident  almost  impossi 
ble — or  if  anything  should  happen  to  one  of  these 
engines,  there  would  be  another  engine  more 


174  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

than  sufficient  for  the  work.  The  top  of  this  car 
would  be  conical,  ending  in  a  sharp  point,  and 
made  of  steel,  so  that  if  any  fragment  in  the  wall 
of  the  tunnel  should  become  dislodged  and  fall,  it 
would  glance  from  this  roof  and  fall  between  the 
side  of  the  car  and  the  inner  surface  of  the  shaft; 
for  the  car  is  to  be  only  twenty-six  inches  in  di 
ameter — quite  wide  enough  for  my  purpose — and 
this  would  leave  at  least  ten  inches  of  space  all 
around  the  car.  But,  as  I  have  said  before,  the 
sides  of  this  tunnel  are  hard  and  smooth.  The 
substances  of  which  they  are  composed  have  been 
pressed  together  by  a  tremendous  force.  It  is  as 
unlikely  that  anything  should  fall  from  them  as 
that  particles  should  drop  from  the  inside  of  a 
rifle-barrel. 

"  I  admit,  Margaret,  that  this  proposed  jour 
ney  into  the  depths  of  the  earth  is  a  very  peculiar 
one,  but,  after  all,  it  is  comparatively  an  easy  and 
safe  performance  when  compared  to  other  things 
that  men  have  done.  The  mountain-climbers  of 
our  fathers'  time,  who  used  to  ascend  the  highest 
peaks  with  nothing  but  spiked  shoes  and  sharp 
ened  poles,  ran  far  more  danger  than  would  be 
met  by  one  who  would  descend  such  a  shaft  as 
mine. 

"  And  then,  Margaret,  think  of  what  our  friends 
on  board  the  Dipsey  have  been  and  are  doing  ! 
Think  of  the  hundreds  of  miles  they  have  trav 
elled  through  the  unknown  depths  of  the  sea  ! 
Their  expedition  was  fifty  times  as  hazardous  as 
the  trip  of  a  few  hours  which  I  propose." 

Now  Margaret  spoke. 

"  But  I  am  not  engaged  to  be  married  to  Sam- 


"THAT  is  HOW  i  LOVE  YOU"  175 

uel  Block,  or  to  Mr.  Gibbs,  or  to  any  of  the  rest 
of  them." 

He  drew  his  chair  closer  to  her,  and  he  took 
both  of  her  hands  in  his  own.  He  held  them  as 
if  they  had  been  two  lifeless  things. 

"Margaret,"  he  said,  "you  know  I  love  you, 
and—" 

"  Yes,"  she  interrupted,  "  but  I  know  that  you 
love  science  more." 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  he,  "  and  I  am  going  to  show 
you  how  greatly  mistaken  you  are.  Tell  me  not 
to  go  down  that  shaft,  tell  me  to  live  on  without 
ever  knowing  what  it  is  I  have  discovered,  tell 
me  to  explode  bombs  in  that  great  hole  until  I 
have  blocked  it  up,  and  I  will  obey  you.  That  is 
how  I  love  you,  Margaret." 

She  gazed  into  his  eyes,  and  her  hands,  from 
merely  lifeless  things,  became  infused  with  a 
gentle  warmth  ;  they  moved  as  if  they  might 
return  the  clasp  in  which  they  were  held.  But 
she  did  not  speak,  she  simply  looked  at  him,  and 
he  patiently  waited.  Suddenly  she  rose  to  her 
feet,  withdrawing  her  hands  from  his  hold  as  if 
he  had  hurt  her. 

"  Roland,"  she  exclaimed,  "  you  think  you  know 
all  that  is  in  my^heart,  but  you  do  not.  You 
know  it  is  rilled  with  dread,  with  horror,  with  a 
sickening  fear,  but  it  holds  more  than  that.  It 
holds  a  love  for  you  which  is  stronger  than  any 
fear  or  horror  or  dread.  Roland,  you  must  go 
down  that  shaft,  you  must  know  the  great  dis 
covery  you  have  made — even  if  you  should  never 
be  able  to  come  back  to  earth  again,  you  must 
die  knowing  what  it  is.  That  is  how  I  love  you  !" 


176  THE    GREAT   STONE    OF    SARDIS 

Roland  quickly  made  a  step  forward,  but  she 
moved  back  as  if  she  were  about  to  seat  herself 
again,  but  suddenly  her  knees  bent  beneath  her, 
and,  before  he  could  touch  her,  she  had  fallen 
over  on  her  side  and  lay  senseless  on  the  floor. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE   CAVE    OP   LIGHT 

MARGARET  was  put  into  the  charge  of  her 
faithful  house  -  keeper,  ,and  Roland  did  not  see 
her  again  until  the  evening.  As  she  met  him 
she  began  immediately  to  talk  upon  some  unim 
portant  subject,  and  there  was  that  _jn  her  face 
which  told  him  that  it  was  her  desire  that  tEe 
great  thought  which  rilled  both  their  minds 
should  not  be  the  subject  of  their  conversation. 
She  told  him  she  was  going  to  the  sea-shore  for 
a  short  time;  she  needed  a  change,  and  she  would 
go  the  next  day.  He  understood  her  perfectly, 
and  they  discussed  various  matters  of  business 
connected  with  the  Works.  She  said  nothing 
about  the  time  of  her  return,  and  he  did  not  al 
lude  to  it. 

On  the  day  that  Margaret  left  Sardis,  Roland 
began  his  preparations  for  descending  the  shaft. 
He  had  so  thoroughly  considered  the  machinery 
and  appliances  necessary  for  the  undertaking, 
and  had  worked  out  all  his  plans  in  such  detail, 
in  his  mind  and  upon  paper,  that  he  knew  ex 
actly  wHatf  he  wanted  to  do.  His  orders  for  the 
great  length  of  chain  exhausted  the  stock  of  sev 
eral  manufactories,  and  the  engines  he  obtained 
were  even  more  powerful  than  he  had  intended 


178  THE    GREAT   STONE    OF    SARDIS 

them  to  be  ;  but  these  he  could  procure  immedi 
ately,  and  for  smaller  ones  he  would  have  been 
obliged  to  wait. 

The  circular  car  which  was  intended  to  move 
up  and  down  the  shaft,  and  the  peculiar  machinery 
connected  with  it,  with  the  hoisting  apparatus, 
were  all  made  in  his  Works.  His  skilled  artisans 
labored  steadily  day  and  night. 

It  was  ten  days  before  he  was  ready  to  make 
his  descent.  Margaret  was  still  at  the  sea-shore. 
They  had  written  to  each  other  frequently,  but 
neither  had  made  mention  of  the  great  shaft. 
Even  when  he  was  ready  to  go  down  he  said 
nothing  to  any  one  of  any  immediate  intention 
of  descending.  There  was  a  massive  door  which 
covered  the  mouth  of  the  pit ;  this  he  ordered 
locked  and  went  away. 

The  next  morning  he  walked  into  the  building 
a  little  earlier  than  was  his  custom,  called  for  the 
engineers,  and  for  Mr.  Bryce,  who  was  to  take 
charge  of  everything  connected  with  the  descent, 
and  announced  that  he  was  going  down  as  soon 
as  preparations  could  be  made. 

Mr.  Bryce  and  the  men  who  were  to  assist  him 
were  very  serious.  They  said  nothing  that  was 
not  necessary.  If  their  employer  had  been  any 
other  man  than  Roland  Clewe  it  is  possible  they 
might  have  remonstrated  with  him.  But  they 
knew  him,  and  they  said  and  did  nothing  more 
than  was  their  4llt^ 

The  door  of  the  shaft  was  removed,  the  car 
which  had  hung  high  above  it  was  lowered  to  the 
mouth  of  the  opening,  and  Roland  stepped  within 
it  and  seated  himself.  Above  him  and  around  him 


THE    CAVE    OP    LIGHT  179 

were  placed  geological  tools  and  instruments  of 
many  kinds  ;  a  lantern,  food  and  drink  ;  every 
thing,  in  fact,  which  he  could  possibly  be  pre 
sumed  to  need  upon  this  extraordinary  journey. 
A  telephone  was  at  his  side  by  which  he  could 
communicate  at  any  time  with  the  surface  of  the 
earth.  There  were  electric  bells  ;  there  was  every 
thing  to  make  his  expedition  safe  and  profitable. 
When  he  gave  the  word  to  start  the  engines, 
there  were  no  ceremonies,  and  nothing  was  said 
out  of  the  common. 

When  the  conical  top  of  the  car  had  descended 
below  the  surface,  a  steel  grating,  with  orifices  for 
the  passage  of  the  chains,  was  let  down  over  the 
mouth  of  the  shaft,  and  the  downward  journey 
was  begun.  In  the  floor  of  the  car  were  grated 
openings,  through  which  Clewe  could  look  down 
ward;  but  although  the  shaft  below  him  was  brill 
iantly  illuminated  by  electric  lights  placed  under 
the  car,  it  did  not  frighten  him  or  make  him 
dizzy  to  look  down,  for  the  aperture  did  not  ap 
pear  to  be  very  far  below  him.  The  upper  part 
of  the  car  was  partially  open,  and  bright  lights 
shone  upon  the  sides  of  the  shaft. 

As  he  slowly  descended,  he  could  see  the  vari 
ous  strata  appearing  and  disappearing  in  the 
order  in  which  he  knew  them.  Not  far  below  the 
surface  he  passed  cavities  which  he  believed  held 
water  ;  but  there  was  no  water  in  them  now.  He 
had  expected  these,  and  had  feared  that  upon 
their  edges  there  might  be  loosened  patches  of 
rock  or  soil,  but  everything  seemed  tightly  packed 
and  hard.  If  anything  had  been  loosened  it  had 
gone  down  already. 


l8o  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP   SARDIS 

Down,  down  he  went  until  he  came  to  the  eter 
nal  rocks,  where  the  inside  of  the  shaft  was  pol 
ished  as  if  it  had  been  made  of  glass.  It  became 
warmer  and  warmer,  but  he  knew  that  the  heat 
would  soon  decrease.  The  character  of  the  rocks 
changed,  and  he  studied  them  as  he  went  down, 
and  continually  made  notes. 

After  a  time  the  polished  rocky  sides  of  the 
shaft  grew  to  be  of  a  ^solemn  sameness.  Clewe 
ceased  to  take  notes ;  he  lighted  a  cigar  and 
smoked.  He  tried  to  quietly  imagine  what  he 
would  come  to  when  he  ^ot  to  the  bottom  ;  it 
would  be  some  sort  of  a  cave  into  which  his  shell 
had  made  an  opening.  He  wondered  what  sort 
of  a  cave  it  would  be,  and  how  high  the  roof  of  it 
was  from  the  bottom.  He  wondered  if  his  gar 
dener  had  remembered  what  he  had  told  him 
about  the  flower-beds  in  front  of  his  house  ;  he 
wanted  certain  changes  made  which  Margaret 
had  suggested.  He  tried  to  keep  his  mind  on 
the  flower-beds,  but  it  drifted  away  to  the  cave 
below.  He  began  to  wonder  if  he  would  come 
to  some  underground  body  of  water  where  he 
would  be  drowned;  but  he  knew  that  was  a  silly 
thought.  If  the  shaft  had  gone  through  subter 
ranean  reservoirs,  the  water  of  these  would  have 
run  out,  and  before  they  reached  the  bottom  of 
the  shaft  would  have  dissipated  into  mist. 

Down,  down  he  went.  He  looked  at  his  watch; 
he  had  been  in  that  car  only  an  hour  and  a  half. 
Was  that  possible  ?  He  had  supposed  he  was  al 
most  at  the  bottom.  Suddenly  he  thought  of 
the  people  above,  and  of  the  telephone.  Why 
had  not  some  of  them  spoken  to  him?  It  was 


THE   CAVE   OP   LIGHT  l8l 

shameful  !  He  instantly  called  Bryce,  and  his 
heart  leaped  with  joy  when  he  heard  the  familiar 
voice  in  his  ear.  Now  he  talked  steadily  on  for 
more  than  an  hour.  He  had  his  gardener 
called,  and  he  told  him  all  that  he  wanted  done 
in  the  flower-beds.  He  gave  many  directions  in 
regard  to  the  various  operations  of  the  Works. 
Things  had  been  put  back  a  great  deal  of  late. 
He  hoped  soon  to  have  everything  going  on  in 
the  ordinary  way.  There  were  two  or  three  in 
ventions  in  which  he  took  particular  interest, 
and  of  these  he  talked  at  great  length  with  Mr. 
Bryce.  Suddenly,  in  the  midst  of  some  talk 
about  hollow  steel  rods,  he  told  Bryce  to  let  the 
engines  move  faster ;  there  was  no  reason  why 
the  car  should  go  so  slowly. 

The  windlasses  moved  with  a  little  more  rapid 
ity,  and  Clewe  now  turned  and  looked  at  an  in 
dicator  wnich  was  placed  on  the  side  of  the  car, 
a  little  over  his  head.  This  instrument  showed 
the  depth  to  which  he  had  descended,  but  he  had 
not  looked  at  it  before,  for  if  there  should  be  any 
thing  which  would  make  him  nervous  it  would 
be  the  continual  consideration"^  the  depth  to 
which  he  had  descended. 

The  indicator  showed  that  he  had  gone  down 
fourteen  and  one  eighth  miles.  Clewe  turned 
and  sat  stiffly  in  his  seat.  He  glanced  down  and 
saw  beneath  him  only  an  illuminated  hole,  fading 
away  at  the  bottom.  Then  he  turned  to  speak 
to  Bryce,  but  to  his  surprise  he  could  think  of 
nothing  to  say.  After  that  he  lighted  another 
cigar  and  sat  quietly. 

Some  minutes  passed  —  he  did  not  know  how 


1 82  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF   SARDIS 

many  —  and  he  looked  down  through  the  grat 
ings  at  the  floor  of  the  car.  The  electric  light 
streamed  downward  through  a  deep  orifice,  which 
did  not  fade  away  and  end  in  nothing ;  it  ended 
in  something  dark  and  glittering.  Then,  as  he 
came  nearer  and  nearer  to  this  glittering  thing,  he 
saw  that  it  was  his  automatic  shell,  lying  on  its 
side,  but  he  could  see  only  a  part  of  it  through 
the  opening  of  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  which  he 
was  descending.  In  an  instant,  as  it  seemed  to 
him,  the  car  emerged  from  the  narrow  shaft,  and 
he  seemed  to  be  hanging  in  the  air — at  least  there 
was  nothing  he  could  see  except  that  great  shell, 
lying  some  forty  feet  below  him.  But  it  was  im 
possible  that  the  shell  should  be  lying  on  the  air  ! 
He  rang  to  stop  the  car. 

"  Anything  the  matter  ?"  cried  Bryce,  almost 
at  the  same  instant. 

"  Nothing  at  all,"  Clewe  replied.  "  It's  all  right, 
I  am  near  the  bottom." 

In  a  state  of  the  highest  nervous  excitement, 
Clewe  gazed  about  him.  He  was  no  longer  in  a 
shaft ;  but  where  was  he  ?  Look  out  on  what  side 
he  would,  he  saw  nothing  but  the  light  going  out 
from  his  lamps,  but  which  seemed  to  extend  in 
definitely  all  about  him.  There  seemed  to  be  no 
limit  to  his  vision  in  any  direction.  Then  he 
leaned  over  the  side  of  his  car  and  looked  down 
ward.  There  was  the  great  shell  directly  under 
him,  but  under  it  and  around  it,  extending  as  far 
beneath  it  as  it  extended  in  every  other  direction, 
was  the  light  from  his  own  lamps,  and  yet  that 
great  shell,  weighing  many  tons,  lay  as  if  it  rested 
upon  the  solid  ground  ! 


THE   CAVE   OF    LIGHT  183 

After  a  few  moments  Clewe  shut  his  eyes; 
they  pained  him.  Something  seemed  to  be  com 
ing  into  them  like  a  fine  frost  in  a  winter  wind. 
Then  he  called  to  Bryce  to  let  the  car  descend 
very  slowly.  It  went  down,  down,  gradually  ap 
proaching  the  great  shell.  When  the  bottom  of 
the  car  was  within  two  feet  of  it,  Clewe  rang  to 
stop.  He  looked  down  at  the  complicated  ma 
chine  he  had  worked  upon  so  long,  with  some 
thing  like  a  feeling  of  affection.  This  he  knew,  it 
was  his  own.  Looking  upon  its  familiar  form,  he 
felt  that  he  had  a  companion  in  this  region  of 
unreality. 

Pushing  back  the  sliding  door  of  the  car,  Clewe 
sat  upon  the  bottom  and  cautiously  put  out  his 
feet  and  legs,  lowering  them  until  they  touched 
the  shell.  It  was  firm  and  solid.  Although  he 
knew  it  must  be  so,  the  immovability  of  the  great 
mass  of  iron  gave  him  a  sudden  shock  of  mysteri 
ous  fear.  How  could  it  be  immovable  when  there 
was  nothing  under  it  ? 

But  he  must  get  out  of  that  car,  he  must  ex 
plore,  he  must  find  out.  There  certainly  could 
be  no  danger  so  long  as  he  could  cling  to  his 
shell. 

He  now  cautiously  got  out  of  the  car  and  let 
himself  down  upon  the  shell.  It  was  not  a  pleas 
ant  surface  to  stand  upon,  being  uneven,  with 
great  spiral  ribs,  and  Clewe  sat  down  upon  it, 
clinging  to  it  with  his  hands.  Then  he  leaned 
over  to  one  side  and  looked  beneath  him.  The 
shadows  of  that  shell  went  down,  down,  down, 
until  it  made  him  sick  to  look  at  it.  He  drew 
back  quickly,  clutched  the  shell  with  his  arms, 


184  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

and  shut  his  eyes.  He  felt  as  if  he  were  about  to 
drop  with  it  into  a  measureless  depth  of  atmos 
phere. 

But  he  soon  raised  himself.  He  had  not  come 
down  here  to  be  frightened,  to  let  his  nerves  run 
away  with  him.  He  had  come  to  find  out  things. 
What  was  it  that  this  shell  rested  upon  ?  Seizing 
two  of  the  ribs  with  a  strong  clutch,  he  let  him 
self  hang  over  the  sides  of  the  shell  until  his  feet 
were  level  with  its  lower  side.  They  touched 
something  hard.  He  pressed  them  downward ; 
it  was  very  hard.  He  raised  himself  and  stood 
upon  the  substance  which  supported  the  shell. 
It  was  as  solid  as  any  rock.  He  looked  down 
and  saw  his  shadow  stretching  far  beneath  him. 
It  seemed  as  if  he  were  standing  upon  petri 
fied  air.  He  put  out  one  foot  and  he  moved  a 
little,  still  holding  on  to  the  shell.  He  walked,  as 
if  upon  solid  air,  to  the  foremost  end  of  the  long 
projectile.  It  relieved  him  to  turn  his  thoughts 
from  what  was  around  him  to  this  familiar  object. 
He  found  its  conical  end  shattered  and  broken. 

After  a  little  he  slowly  made  his  way  back  to 
the  other  end  of  the  shell,  and  now  his  eyes  be 
came  somewhat  accustomed  to  the  great  radi 
ance  about  him.  He  thought  he  could  perceive 
here  and  there  faint  indications  of  long,  nearly 
horizontal  lines — lines  of  different  shades  of  light. 
Above  him,  as  if  it  hung  in  the  air,  was  the  round, 
dark  hole  through  which  he  had  descended. 

He  rose,  took  his  hands  from  the  shell,  and 
made  a  few  steps.  He  trod  upon  a  horizontal 
surface,  but  in  putting  one  foot  forward,  he  felt 
a  slight  incline.  It  seemed  to  him  that  he  was 


THE  CAVE   OP    LIGHT  185 

about  to  slip  downward  !  Instantly  he  retreated 
to  the  shell  and  clutched  it  in  a  sudden  frenzy  of 
fear. 

Standing  thus,  with  his  eyes  still  wandering,  he 
heard  the  bell  of  the  telephone  ring.  Without 
hesitation  he  mounted  the  shell  and  got  into  the 
car.  Bryce  was  calling  him. 

"  Come  up,"  he  said.  "  You  have  been  down 
there  long  enough.  No  matter  what  you  have 
found,  it  is  time  for  you  to  come  up." 

Roland  Clewe  was  not  accustomed  to  receive 
commands,  but  he  instantly  closed  the  sliding 
door  of  the  car,  seated  himself,  and  put  his  mouth 
to  the  telephone. 

"  All  right,"  he  said.  "You  can  haul  me  up,  but 
go  very  slowly  at  first." 

The  car  rose.  When  it  reached  the  orifice  in 
the  top  of  the  cave  of  light,  Clewe  heard  the  coni 
cal  steel  top  grate  slightly  as  it  touched  its  edge, 
for  it  was  still  swinging  a  little  from  the  motion 
given  to  it  by  his  entrance ;  but  it  soon  hung 
perfectly  vertical  and  went  silently  up  the  shaft. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

CLEWE'S    THEORY 

SEATED  in  the  car,  which  was  steadily  ascend 
ing  the  great  shaft,  Roland  Clewe  took  no  no 
tice  of  anything  about  him.  He  did  not  look  at 
the  brilliantly  lighted  interior  of  the  shaft,  he 
paid  no  attention  to  his  instruments,  he  did  not 
consult  his  watch,  nor  glance  at  the  dial  which 
indicated  the  distance  he  had  travelled.  Several 
times  the  telephone  bell  rang,  and  Bryce  inquired 
how  he  was  getting  along  ;  but  these  questions  he 
answered  as  briefly  as  possible,  and  sat  looking 
down  at  his  knees  and  seeing  nothing. 

When  he  was  half-way  up,  he  suddenly  became 
conscious  that  he  was  very  hungry.  He  hurried 
ly  ate  some  sandwiches  and  drank  some  water, 
and  then,  again,  he  gave  himself  up  entirely  to 
mental  labor.  When,  at  last,  the  noise  of  machin 
ery  above  him  and  the  sound  of  voices  aroused 
him  from  his^bsjtoctiorj,  the  car  emerged  upon 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  Clewe  hastily  slid  back 
the  door  and  stepped  out.  At  that  instant  he 
felt  himself  encircled  by  a  pair  of  arms.  Bryce 
was  near  by,  and  there  were  other  men  by  the 
engines,  but  the  owner  of  those  arms  thought 
nothing  of  this. 

"  Margaret !"  cried  Clewe, "  how  came  you  here  ?" 


CLEWE'S  THEORY  187 

"  I  have  been  here  all  the  time,"  she  exclaimed  ; 
"  or,  at  least,  nearly  all  the  time."  And  as  she  spoke 
she  drew  back  and  looked  at  him,  her  eyes  full  of 
happy  tears.  "  Mr.  Bryce  telegraphed  to  me  the 
instant  he  knew  you  were  going  down,  and  I  was 
here  before  you  had  descended  half-way." 

"What!"  he  cried.  "And  all  those  messages 
came  from  you  ?" 

"  Nearly  all,"  she  answered.  "  But  tell  me,  Ro 
land — tell  me  ;  have  you  been  successful  ?  What 
have  you  discovered  ?" 

"  I  am  successful,"  he  answered.  "  I  have  dis 
covered  everything  !" 

Mr.  Bryce  came  forward. 

"  I  will  speak  to  you  all  very  soon,"  said  Clewe. 
"  I  can't  tell  you  anything  now.  Margaret,  let 
us  go.  I  shall  want  to  talk  to  you  directly,  but 
not  until  I  have  been  to  my  office.  I  will  meet 
you  at  your  house  in  a  very  few  minutes."  And 
with  that  he  left  the  building  and  fairly  ran  to 
his  office. 

A  quarter  of  an  hour  later  Roland  entered 
Margaret's  library,  where  she  sat  awaiting  him. 
He  carefully  closed  the  doors  and  windows. 
They  sat  side  by  side  upon  the  sofa. 

"  Now,  Roland,"  she  said,  "  I  cannot  wait  one 
second  longer.  What  is  it  that  you  have  dis 
covered  ?" 

"  Margaret,"  said  he,  "  I  am  afraid  you  will  have 
to  wait  a  good  many  seconds.  If  I  were  to  tell 
you  directly  what  I  have  discovered,  you  would 
not  understand  it.  I  am  the  possessor  of  won 
derful  facts,  but  I  believe  also  that  I  am  the  mas 
ter  of  a  theory  more  wonderful.  The  facts  I 


1 88  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF    SARDIS 

found  out  when  I  got  to  the  bottom  of  the  shaft, 
but  the  theory  I  worked  out  coming  up." 

"  But  give  them  to  me  quickly  !"  she  cried. 
"The  facts  first— I  can  wait  for  the  theory." 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  I  cannot  do  it;  I  must  tell  you 
the  whole  thing  as  I  have  it>arranged  in  my  mind.-,.. 
Now,  in  the  first  place,  you  must  understand  that 
this  earth  was  once  a  comet." 

"  Oh,  bother  your  astronomy,  I  really  can't  un 
derstand  it !  What  did  you  find  in  the  bottom  of 
that  hole  ?" 

"  You  must  listen  to  me,"  he  said.  "  You  can 
not  comprehend  a  thing  I  say  if  I  do  not  give  it 
to  you  in  the  proper  order.  There  have  been  a 
great  many  theories  about  comets,  but  there  is 
only  one  of  them  in  which  I  have  placed  any  be 
lief.  You  know  that  as  a  comet  passes  around 
the  sun,  its  tail  is  always  pointed  away  from  the 
sun,  so  that  no  matter  how  rapidly  the  head  shall 
be  moving  in  its  orbit,  the  end  of  the  tail — in 
order  to  keep  its  position — must  move  with  a 
rapidity  impossible  to  conceive.  If  this  tail  were 
composed  of  nebulous  mist,  or  anything  of  that 
sort,  it  could  not  keep  its  position.  There  is 
only  one  theory  which  could  account  for  this 
position,  and  that  is  that  the  head  of  a  comet  is  a 
lens  and  the  tail  is  light.  The  light  of  the  sun 
passes  through  the  lens  and  streams  out  into  space, 
forming  the  tail,  which  does  not  follow  the  comet 
in  the  inconceivable  manner  generally  supposed, 
but  is  constantly  renewed,  always,  of  course, 
stretching  away  from  the  sun  !" 

"Oh,  dear!"  ejaculated  Margaret.  "I  have 
read  that." 


CLEWE'S  THEORY  189 

"  A  little  patience,"  he  said.  "  When  I  arrived 
at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft,  I  found  myself  in  a 
cleft,  I  know  not  how  large,  made  in  a  vast  mass 
of  transparent  substance,  hard  as  the  hardest 
rock  and  transparent  as  air  in  the  light  of  my 
electric  lamps:  My  shell  rested  securely  upon 
this  substance.  I  walked  upon  it.  It  seemed  as 
if  I  could  see  miles  below  me.  In  my  opinion, 
Margaret,  that  substance  was  once  the  head  of  a 
comet." 

"  What  is  the  substance  ?"  she  asked,  hastily. 

"  It  is  a  mass  of  solid  diamond  !" 

Margaret  screamed.  She  could  not  say  one 
word. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  I  believe  the  whole  central 
portion  of  the  earth  is  one  great  diamond.  When 
it  was  moving  about  in  its  orbit  as  a  comet, 
the  light  of  the  sun  streamed  through  this  dia 
mond  and  spread  an  enormous  tail  out  into  space  ; 
after  a  time  this  nucleus  began  to  burn." 

"  Burn  !"  exclaimed  Margaret. 

"  Yes,  the  diamond  is  almost  pure  carbon ;  why 
should  it  not  burn  ?  It  burned  and  burned  and 
burned.  Ashes  formed  upon  it  and  encircled  it ; 
still  it  burned,  and  when  it  was  entirely  covered 
with  its  ashes  it  ceased  to  be  transparent,  it 
ceased  to  be  a  comet ;  it  became  a  planet,  and  re 
volved  in  a  different  orbit.  Still  it  burned  with 
in  its  covering  of  ashes,  and  these  gradually 
changed  to  rock,  to  metal,  to  everything  that 
forms  the  crust  of  the  earth." 

She  gazed  upon  him,  entranced. 

"  Some  parts  of  this  great  central  mass  of  car 
bon  burn  more  fiercely  than  other  parts.  Some 


I  pO  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

parts  do  not  burn  at  all.  In  volcanic  regions  the 
fires  rage  ;  where  my  great  shell  went  down  it 
does  not  burn  at  all.  Now  you  have  my  theory. 
It  is  crude  and  rough,  for  I  have  tried  to  give  it 
to  you  in  as  few  words  as  possible." 

"  Oh,  Roland,"  she  cried,  "  it  is  absurd  !  Dia 
mond  !  Why,  people  will  think  you  are  crazy. 
You  must  not  say  such  a  thing  as  that  to  any 
body.  It  is  simply  impossible  that  the  greater 
part  of  this  earth  should  be  an  enormous  dia 
mond." 

"  Margaret,"  he  answered,  "  nothing  is  impossi 
ble.  The  central  portion  of  this  earth  is  com 
posed  of  something  ;  it  might  just  as  well  be 
diamond  as  anything  else.  In  fact,  if  you  con 
sider  the  matter,  it  is  more  likely  to  be,  because 
diamond  is  a  very  original  substance.  As  I  have 
said,  it  is  almost  pure  carbon.  I  do  not  intend 
to  say  one  word  of  what  I  have  told  you  to  any 
one — at  least,  until  the  matter  has  been  well  con 
sidered — but  I  am  not  afraid  of  being  thought 
crazy.  Margaret,  will  you  look  at  these  ?" 

He  took  from  his  pocket  some  shining  sub 
stances  resembling  glass.  Some  of  them  were 
flat,  some  round  ;  the  largest  was  as  big  as  a 
lemon,  others  were  smaller  fragments  of  various 
sizes. 

"  These  are  pieces  of  the  great  diamond  which 
were  broken  when  the  shell  struck  the  bottom  of 
the  cave  in  which  I  found  it.  I  picked  them  up 
as  I  felt  my  way  around  this  shell,  when  walking 
upon  what  seemed  to  me  like  solid  air.  I  thrust 
them  into  my  pocket,  and  I  would  not  come  to 
you,  Margaret,  with  this  story,  until  I  had  gone 


to  my  office  to  find  out  if  these  fragments  were 
really  diamond.  I  tested  them  ;  their  substance 
is  diamond  !" 

Half  dazed,  she  took  the  largest  piece  in  her 
hand. 

"Roland,"  she  whispered,  "if  this  is  really  a 
diamond,  there  is  nothing  like  it  known  to  man  !" 

"  Nothing,  indeed,"  said  he. 

She  sat  staring  at  the  great  piece  of  glowing 
mineral  which  lay  in  her  hand.  Its  surface  was 
irregular ;  it  had  many  faces  ;  the  subdued  light 
from  the  window  gave  it  the  appearance  of  ani 
mated  water.  He  felt  it  necessary  to  speak. 

"  Even  these  little  pieces,"  he  said,  "  are  most 
valuable  jewels." 

She  still  sat  silent,  looking  at  the  glowing  ob 
ject  she  held. 

"  You  see,  these  are  not  like  the  stones  which 
are  found  in  our  diamond-fields,"  he  said.  "  Those, 
most  likely,  were  little,  unconsumed  bits  of  the 
original  mass,  afterwards  gradually  forced  up 
from  the  interior  in  the  same  way  that  many 
metals  and  minerals  are  forced  up,  and  then 
rounded  and  dulled  by  countless  ages  of  grind 
ing  and  abrasion,  due  to  the  action  of  rocks  or 
water." 

"  Roland,"  she  cried,  excitedly,  "  this  is  riches 
beyond  imagination  !  What  is  common  wealth 
to  what  you  have  discovered  ?  Every  living  being 
on  earth  could — " 

"Ah,  Margaret,"  he  interrupted,  "do  not  let 
your  thoughts  run  that  way.  If  my  discovery 
should  be  put  to  the  use  of  which  you  are  think 
ing,  it  would  bring  poverty,  not  wealth,  to  the 


192  THE    GREAT   STONE   OP    SARDIS 

world,  and  not  a  diamond  on  earth  would  be  worth 
more  than  a  common  pebble.  Everywhere,  in 
civilized  countries  and  in  barbaric  palaces,  peo 
ple  would  see  their  riches  vanish  before  them  as 
if  it  had  been  blighted  by  the  touch  of  an  evil 
magician." 

She  trembled.  "And  these — are  they  to  be  val 
ued  as  common  pebbles  ?" 

"  Oh  no,"  said  he  ;  "  so  long  as  that  great  shaft 
is  mine,  these  broken  fragments  are  to  us  riches 
far  ahead  of  our  wildest  imaginations." 

"  Roland,"  she  cried,  "  are  you  going  down  into 
that  shaft  for  more  of  them  ?" 

"  Never,  never,  never  again,"  he  said.  "  What 
we  have  here  is  enough  for  us,  and  if  I  were  of 
fered  all  the  good  that  there  is  in  this  world, 
which  money  cannot  buy,  I  would  never  go  down 
into  that  cleft  again.  There  was  one  moment 
when  I  stood  in  that  cave  in  which  an  awful  ter- 
{\\  ror  shot  into  myjspjLil^which  I  shall  never  be  able 
to  forget.  In  the  light  of  my  electric  lamps,  sent 
through  a  vast  transparent  mass,  I  could  see  noth 
ing,  but  I  could  feel.  I  put  out  my  foot  and  I 
found  it  was  upon  a  sloping  surface.  In  another 
instant  I  might  have  slid — where  ?  I  cannot  bear 
to  think  of  it !" 

She  threw  her  arms  around  him  and  held  him 
tightly. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 
THE    LAST    DIVE    OP   THE    DIPSEY 

WHEN  the  engines  of  the  Dipsey  had  stopped, 
and  she  was  quietly  floating  upon  the  smooth 
surface  of  Lake  Shiver,  Mr.  Gibbs  greatly  desired 
to  make  a  connection  with  the  telegraphic  cable 
which  was  stretched  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean, 
beneath  him,  and  to  thus  communicate  with  Sardis. 
But  when  this  matter  was  discussed  in  council, 
several  objections  were  brought  against  it,  the 
principal  one  being  that  the  cable  could  not  be 
connected  with  the  Dipsey  without  destroying  its 
connection  with  the  little  station  near  the  pole ; 
and  although  this  means  of  telegraphic  communi 
cation  with  regions  which  might  never  be  visited 
again  might  well  be  considered  as  possessing  no 
particular  value,  still  it  was  such  a  wonderful 
thing  to  lay  a  telegraph  line  to  the  pole  that  it 
seemed  the  greatest  pity  in  the  world  to  after 
wards  destroy  it. 

The  friends  of  this  exploring  party  had  not  heard 
from  it  since  it  left  the  polar  sea,  but  there  could 
be  no  harm  in  making  them  wait  a  little  longer. 
If  the  return  voyage  under  the  ice  should  be  as 
successfully  accomplished  as  the  first  submarine 
cruise,  it  would  not  be  very  many  days  before  the 
Dipsey  should  arrive  at  Cape  Tariff.  She  would 
13 


194  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP   SARDIS 

not  proceed  so  slowly  as  she  did  when  coming 
north,  for  now  her  officers  would  feel  that  in  a 
measure  they  knew  the  course,  and  moreover 
they  would  not  be  delayed  by  the  work  of  laying 
a  cable  as  they  progressed. 

So  it  was  agreed  that  it  would  be  a  waste  of 
time  and  labor  to  stop  here  and  make  connection 
with  the  cable,  and  preparations  were  made  for  a 
descent  to  a  safe  depth  beneath  the  surface,  when 
they  would  start  southward  on  their  homeward 
voyage.  Mrs.  Sarah  Block,  wrapped  from  head 
to  foot  in  furs,  remained  on  deck  as  long  as  her 
husband  would  allow  her  to  do  so.  For  some 
time  before  her  eyes  had  been  slowly  wandering 
around  the  edge  of  that  lonely  piece  of  water,  and 
it  was  with  an  unsatisfied  air  that  she  now  stood 
gazing  from  side  to  side.  At  last  Sammy  took 
her  by  the  arm  and  told  her  she  must  go  below, 
for  they  were  going  to  close  up  the  hatchways. 

"  Well,"  said  Sarah,  with  a  sigh,  "  I  suppose  I 
must  give  'em  up ;  they  were  the  warmest  and 
most  comfortable  ones  I  had,  and  I  could  have 
thawed  'em  out  and  dried  'em  so  that  they  would 
have  been  as  good  as  ever.  I  would  not  mind 
leavin'  'em  if  there  was  a  human  bein'  in  this 
neighborhood  that  would  wear  'em  ;  but  there 
ain't,  and  it  ain't  likely  there  ever  will  be,  and  if 
they  are  frozen  stiff  in  the  ice  somewhere,  they 
may  stay  here,  as  good  as  new,  for  countless 
ages !" 

Of  course  everybody  was  very  happy,  now  that 
they  were  returning  homeward  from  a  voyage 
successful  beyond  parallel  in  history,  and  even 
Rovinski  was  beginning  to  assume  an  air  of  grati- 


THE    LAST    DIVE    OF    THE    DIPSEY  1 95 

fied  anticipation.  He  had  been  released  from  his 
confinement  and  allowed  to  attend  to  his  duties, 
but  the  trust  which  had  been  placed  in  him  when 
this  kindness  had  been  extended  to  him  on  a  pre 
vious  occasion  was  wanting  now.  Everybody 
knew  that  he  was  an  un^nn^cipled^  man,  and  that 
if  he  could  gain  access  to  the  telegraph  instru 
ment  at  Cape  Tariff  he  would  make  trouble  for 
the  real  discoverer  of  the  north  pole  ;  so  it  was 
agreed  among  the  officers  of  the  vessel  that  the 
strictest  watch  must  be  kept  on  him  and  no  shore 
privileges  be  allowed  him. 

The  southward  voyage  of  the  Dipsey  was  an 
easy  one  and  without  notable  incident  ;  and  at 
last  a  lookout  who  had  been  posted  at  the  upper 
skylight  reported  light  from  above.  This  meant 
that  they  had  reached  open  water  southward  of 
the  frozen  regions  they  had  been  exploring,  and 
the  great  submarine  voyage,  the  most  peculiar 
ever  made  by  man,  was  ended.  Captain  Jim 
Hubbell  immediately  put  on  a  heavy  pea-jacket 
with  silver  buttons,  for  as  soon  as  the  vessel 
should  sail  upon  the  surface  of  the  sea  he  would 
be  in  command. 

When  the  dripping  Dipsey  rose  from  the  waters 
of  the  arctic  regions,  it  might  have  been  supposed 
that  the  people  on  board  of  her  were  emerging 
into  a  part  of  the  world  where  they  felt  perfectly 
at  home.  Cape  Tariff,  to  which  they  were  bound, 
was  a  hundred  miles  away,  and  was  itself  a  lonely 
spot,  often  inaccessible  in  severe  weather,  and 
they  must  make  a  long  and  hazardous  voyage 
from  it  before  they  could  reach  their  homes  ;  but 
by  comparison  with  the  absolutely  desolate  and 


196  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

mysterious  region  they  had  left,  any  part  of  the 
world  where  there  was  a  possibility  of  meeting 
with  other  human  beings  seemed  familiar  and 
homelike. 

But  when  the  Dipsey' vrzs  again  upon  the  sur 
face  of  the  ocean,  when  the  light  of  day  was  shin 
ing  unobstructed  upon  the  bold  form  of  Captain 
Hubbell  as  he  strode  upon  the  upper  deck — being 
careful  not  to  stand  still  lest  his  shoes  should 
freeze  fast  to  the  planks  beneath  him — the  party 
on  board  were  not  so  well  satisfied  as  they  ex 
pected  to  be.  There  was  a  great  wind  blowing, 
and  the  waves  were  rolling  high.  Not  far  away, 
on  their  starboard  bow,  a  small  iceberg,  tossing 
like  a  disabled  ship,  was  surging  towards  them, 
impelled  by  a  biting  blast  from  the  east,  and  the 
sea  was  so  high  that  sometimes  the  spray  swept 
over  the  deck  of  the  vessel,  making  it  impossible 
for  Captain  Hubbell  and  the  others  with  him  to 
keep  dry. 

Still  the  captain  kept  his  post  and  roared  out 
his  orders,  still  the  Dipsey  pressed  forward  against 
wind  and  wave.  Her  engines  were  strong,  her 
electric  gills  were  folded  close  to  her  sides,  and 
she  seemed  to  feel  herself  able  to  contend  against 
the  storm,  and  in  this  point  she  was  heartily 
seconded  by  her  captain. 

But  the  other  people  on  board  soon  began  to 
have  ideas  of  a  different  kind.  It  seemed  to  all 
of  them,  including  the  officers,  that  this  vessel, 
not  built  to  encounter  very  heavy  weather,  was 
in  danger,  and  even  if  she  should  be  able  to  suc 
cessfully  ride  out  the  storm,  their  situation  must 
continue  to  be  a  very  unpleasant  one.  The  Dipsey 


A    LUMP    OF    ICE    SWEEPS    THE    LENGTH    OE    THE    DECK 


THE    LAST   DIVE    OP   THE   DIPSEY  197 

pitched  and  tossed  and  rolled  and  shook  herself, 
and  it  was  the  general  opinion,  below  decks,  that 
the  best  thing  for  her  to  do  would  be  to  sink  into 
the  quiet  depths  below  the  surface,  where  she  was 
perfectly  at  home,  and  proceed  on  her  voyage  to 
Cape  Tariff  in  the  submarine  fashion  to  which 
she  was  accustomed. 

It  was  some  time  before  Captain  Hubbell  would 
consent  to  listen  to  such  a  proposition  as  this,  but 
when  a  wave,  carrying  on  its  crest  a  lump  of  ice 
about  the  size  of  a  flour  barrel,  threw  its  burden 
on  the  deck  of  the  vessel,  raking  it  from  stem  to 
stern,  the  captain,  who  had  barely  been  missed 
by  the  grating  missile,  agreed  that  in  a  vessel 
with  such  a  low  rail  and  of  such  defective  naval 
principles,  it  would  be  better  perhaps  to  sail  un 
der  the  water  than  on  top  of  it,  and  so  he  went 
below,  took  off  his  pea-jacket  with  the  silver  but 
tons,  and  retired  into  private  life.  The  Dipsey 
then  sank  to  a  quiet  depth  and  continued  her 
course  under  water,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of 
everybody  on  board. 

On  a  fine,  frosty  morning,  with  a  strong  wind 
blowing,  although  the  storm  had  subsided,  the 
few  inhabitants  of  the  little  settlement  at  Cape 
Tariff  saw  in  the  distance  a  flag  floating  over  the 
water.  The  Dipsey  had  risen  to  the  surface  some 
twenty  miles  from  the  Cape  and  now  came  brave 
ly  on,  Captain  Hubbell  on  deck,  his  silver  buttons 
shining  in  the  sun.  The  sea  was  rough,  but  every 
body  was  willing  to  bear  with  a  little  discomfort 
in  order  to  be  able  to  see  the  point  of  land  which 
was  the  end  of  the  voyage  on  the  Dipsey,  to  let 
their  eyes  rest  as  early  as  possible  upon  a  wreath 


198  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF   SARD1S 

of  smoke  arising  from  the  habitation  of  human 
beings,  and  to  catch  sight  of  those  human  beings 
themselves. 

As  soon  as  the  Dipsey  arrived  in  the  harbor, 
Sammy  and  most  of  the  officers  went  on  shore  to 
open  communication  with  Sardis.  Sarah  Block 
stayed  on  the  vessel.  She  had  been  on  shore 
when  she  had  arrived  at  Cape  Tariff  in  the  Go 
Lightly,  and  her  disgust  with  the  methods  of  liv 
ing  in  that  part  of  the  world  had  been  freely  ex 
pressed.  So  long  as  she  had  perfectly  comforta 
ble  quarters  on  board  the  good  ship  she  did  not 
wish  to  visit  the  low  huts  and  extremely  close 
quarters  in  which  dwelt  the  people  of  the  little 
colony.  Rovinski  also  remained  on  board,  but 
not  because  he  wanted  to  do  so.  A  watch  was 
kept  upon  him  ;  but  as  the  Dipsey  was  anchored 
some  distance  from  the  landing-place,  Mr.  Marcy 
was  of  the  opinion  that  if  he  attempted  to  swim 
ashore  it  might  be  well  to  let  him  do  so,  for  if  he 
should  not  be  benumbed  in  the  water  into  which 
he  would  plunge  he  would  certainly  be  frozen  to 
death  as  soon  as  he  reached  the  shore. 

The  messages  which  came  from  Sardis  as  soon 
as  news  had  been  received  of  the  safe  return  of 
the  explorers  were  full  of  hearty  congratulations 
and  friendly  welcome,  but  they  were  not  very  long, 
and  Sammy  said  to  Mr.  Gibbs  that  he  thought  it 
likely  that  this  was  one  of  Mr.  Clewe's  busy  times. 
The  latter  telegraphed  that  he  would  send  a  vessel 
for  them  immediately,  and  as  she  was  now  lying 
at  St.  John's  they  would  not  have  to  wait  very 
long. 

The  fact  was  that  the  news  of  the  arrival  of  the 


THE    LAST    DIVE   OF    THE   DIPSEY  199 

Dipsey  at  Cape  Tariff  had  come  to  Sardis  a  week 
after  Clewe's  descent  into  the  shaft,  and  he  was 
absorbed,  bod^j^LSQ^^  m  his  underground  dis- 
coveries.  He  was  not  wanting  in  sympathy,  or 
even  affection,  for  the  people  who  had  been  doing 
his  work,  and  his  interest  in  their  welfare  and 
their  achievements  was  as  great  as  it  ever  had 
been,  but  the  ideas  and  thoughts  which  now  occu 
pied  his  rnindjvere  of  a  character  which  lessened 
and  overshadowed  every  other  object  of  consider 
ation.  Most  of  the  messages  sent  to  Cape  Tariff 
had  come  from  Margaret  Raleigh. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

ROVINSKI   COMES   TO   THE    SURFACE 

WHEN  Sammy  Block  and  his  companion  ex 
plorers  had  journeyed  from  Cape  Tariff  to  Sardis, 
they  found  Roland  Clewe  ready  to  tender  a  most 
grateful  welcome,  and  to  give  full  and  most  in 
terested  attention  to  the  stories  of  their  advent 
ures  and  to  their  scientific  reports.  For  a  time 
he  was  willing  to  allow  his  own  great  discovery 
J.O  lie  fallow  in  his  mind^and  to  give  his  whole 
attention  to  the  wonderful  achievement  which 
had  been  made  under  his  direction. 

He  had  worked  out  his  theory  of  the  formation 
and  present  constitution  of  the  earth  ;  had  written 
a  full  and  complete  report  of  what  he  had  seen 
and  done,  and  was  ready,  when  he  thought  the 
proper  time  had  arrived,  to  announce  to  the  world 
his  theories  and  his  facts.  Moreover,  he  had  sent 
to  several  jewelers  and  mineralogists  some  of  the 
smaller  fragments  which  he  had  picked  up  in  the 
cave  of  light,  and  these  specialists,  while  report 
ing  the  material  of  the  specimens  purest  dia 
mond,  expressed  the  greatest  surprise  at  their 
shape  and  brilliancy.  They  had  evidently  not 
been  ground  or  cut,  and  yet  their  sharp  points 
and  glittering  surfaces  reflected  light  as  if  they 
had  been  in  the  hands  of  a  diamond-cutter.  One 


ROVINSKI    COMES   TO   THE    SURFACE  2OI 

of  these  experts  wrote  to  Clewe  asking  him  if  he 
had  been  digging  diamonds  with  a  machine  which 
broke  the  gems  to  pieces. 

So  the_soul_of  Roland  Clewe  was  satisfied ;  it  if 
seemed  to  walk  the  air  as  he  himself  once  had 
trod  what  seemed  to  him  a  solid  atmosphere. 
There  was  now  nothing  that  his  ambition  might 
point  out  which  would  induce  him  to  endeavor 
to  climb  higher  in  the  field  of  human  achieve 
ment  than  the  spot  on  which  he  stood.  From 
this  great  elevation  he  was  perfectly  willing  to 
look  down  and  kindly  consider  the  heroic  per 
formances  of  those  who  had  reached  the  pole,  and 
who  had  anchored  a  buoy  on  the  extreme  northern 
point  of  the  earth's  axis. 

Mr.  Gibbs's  reports,  and  those  of  his  assist 
ants,  were  well  worked  out,  and  of  the  greatest 
value  to  the  scientific  world,  and  every  one  who 
had  made  that  memorable  voyage  on  the  Dipsey 
had  stories  to  tell  for  which  editors  in  every  civil 
ized  land  would  have  paid  gold  beyond  all  former 
precedent. 

But  Roland  Clewe  did  not  care  to  say  anything 
to  the  world  until  he  could  say  everything  that 
he  wished  to  say.  It  had  been  known  that  he 
had  sent  an  expedition  into  Northern  waters,  but 
exactly  what  he  intended  to  do  had  not  been 
known,  and  what  he  had  done  had  not  been  com 
municated  even  to  the  telegraph  -  operators  at 
Cape  Tariff.  These  had  received  despatches  in 
cipher  from  points  far  away  to  the  north,  but 
while  they  transmitted  them  to  Sardis  they  had 
no  idea  of  their  signification.  When  everything 
should  be  ready  to  satisfy  the  learned  world,  as 


202  THE    GREAT   STONE    OF    SARDIS 

well  as  the^ojgulajjnind^the  great  discovery  of 
the  pole  would  be  announced. 

In  the  meantime  there  was  a  suspicion  in  the 
journalistic  world  that  the  man  of  inventions  who 
lived  at  Sardis,  New  Jersey,  had  done  something 
out  of  the  common  in  the  North.  A  party  of  peo 
ple,  one  of  them  a  woman,  had  been  taken  up 
there  and  left  there,  and  they  had  recently  been 
brought  back.  The  general  opinion  was  that 
Clewe  had  endeavored  to  found  a  settlement  at 
some  point  north  of  Cape  Tariff,  probably  for 
purposes  of  scientific  observation,  and  that  he 
had  failed.  The  stories  of  these  people,  however, 
would  be  interesting,  and  several  reporters  made 
visits  to  Sardis.  But  they  all  saw  Sammy,  and 
not  one  of  them  considered  his  communications 
worth  more  than  a  brief  paragraph. 

In  a  week  Mr.  Gibbs  would  have  finished  his 
charts,  his  meteorological,  his  geological,  and  geo 
graphical  reports,  and  a  clear,  succinct  account  of 
the  expedition,  written  by  Clewe  himself  from  the 
statements  of  the  party,  would  be  ready  for  pub 
lication  ;  and  in  the  brilliantly  lighted  sky  of  dis 
covery  which  now  rested,  one  edge  upon  Sardis 
and  the  other  upon  the  pole,  there  was  but  one 
single  cloud,  and  this  was  Rovinski. 

The  ambitious  and  unscrupulous  Pole  had  been 
the  source  of  the  greatest  trouble  and  uneasi 
ness  since  he  had  left  Cape  Tariff.  While  there 
he  had  found  that  he  could  not  possibly  get  ashore, 
and  so  had  kept  quiet ;  but  when  on  board  the 
vessel  which  had  been  sent  to  them  from  St. 
John's,  he  had  soon  begun  to  talk  to  the  crew, 
and  there  seemed  to  be  but  one  way  of  prevent- 


ROVINSKI   COMES   TO   THE    SURFACE  203 

ing  him  from  making  known  what  had  been  done 
by  the  expedition  before  its  promoters  were  ready 
for  the  disclosure,  and  this  was  to  declare  him  a 
maniac,  whose  utterances  were  of  no  value  what 
ever.  He  was  put  into  close  confinement,  and  it 
was  freely  reported  that  he  had  gone  crazy  while 
in  the  arctic  regions,  and  that  his  mind  had  been 
filled  with  all  sorts  of  insane  notions  rega?3Sng 
that  part  of  the  world. 

It  had  been  intended  to  put  him  in  jail  on  a 
criminal  charge,  but  this  would  not  prevent  him 
from  talking ;  and  so,  when  he  arrived  in  New 
Jersey,  he  was  sent  to  an  insane  asylum,  the  offi 
cers  of  which  were  not  surprised  to  receive  him, 
for,  in  their  opinion,  a  wilder-looking  maniac  was 
not  to  be  found  within  the  walls  of  the  institu 
tion. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  day  before  the 
world  was  to  be  electrified  by  the  announcement 
of  the  discovery  of  the  pole,  a  man  named  William 
Cunningham,  employed  in  the  Sardis  Works,  en 
tered  the  large  building  which  had  been  devoted 
to  the  manufacture  of  the  automatic  shell,  but 
which  had  not  been  used  of  late  and  had  been 
kept  locked.  Cunningham  was  the  watchman, 
and  had  entered  to  make  his  usual  morning 
rounds.  He  had  scarcely  closed  the  door  behind 
him  when,  looking  over  towards  the  engines 
which  still  stood  by  the  mouth  of  the  shaft  made 
by  the  automatic  shell,  he  was  amazed  to  see  that 
the  car  which  had  been  used  by  Roland  Clewe  in 
his  descent  was  not  hanging  above  them. 

Utterly  unable  to  understand  this  state  of  af 
fairs,  he  ran  to  the  mouth  of  the  shaft.  He  found 


204  THE   GREAT    STONE   OF   SARDIS 

the  great  trap-door  which  had  closed  it  thrown 
back,  and  the  grating  which  had  been  made  to 
cover  the  orifice  after  the  car  had  descended  in 
its  place.  The  engines  were  not  moving,  and  the 
chain  on  the  windlass  of  one  of  them  appeared 
not  to  have  been  disturbed,  but  on  the  other 
windlass  one  of  the  chains  had  been  unwound. 
Cunningham  was  so  astonished  that  he  could  not 
believe  what  he  saw.  He  had  been  there  the 
night  before ;  everything  had  been  in  order,  the 
shaft  closed,  and  the  trap-door  locked.  He  leaned 
over  the  grating  and  looked  down  ;  he  could  see 
nothing  but  a  black  hole  without  any  bottom. 
The  man  did  not  look  long,  for  it  made  him  diz 
zy.  He  turned  and  ran  out  of  the  house  to  call 
Mr.  Bryce. 

Ivan  Rovinski  was  not  perhaps  a  lunatic,  but 
his  u^rin£i£l^,gjahition  had  made  him  so  dis 
regard  the  principles  of  ordinary  prudence  when 
such  principles  stood  in  his  way  that  it  could  not 
be  said  that  he  was  at  all  times  entirely  sane.  He 
understood  thoroughly  why  he  had  been  put  in  an 
asylum,  and  it  enraged  him  to  think  that  by  this 
course  his  enemies  had  obtained  a  great  advan 
tage  over  him.  No  matter  what  he  might  say,  it 
was  only  necessary  to  point  to  the  fact  that  he 
was  in  a  lunatic  asylum,  or  that  he  had  just  come 
out  of  one,  to  make  his  utterances  of  no  value. 

But  to  remain  in  confinement  did  not  suit  him 
at  all,  and,  after  three  days'  residence  in  the  insti 
tution  in  which  he  had  been  placed,  he  escaped 
and  made  his  way  to  a  piece  of  woods  about  two 
miles  from  Sardis,  where,  early  that  year,  he  had 
built  himself  a  rude  shelter,  from  which  he  might 


ROVINSKI   COMES   TO  THE   SURFACE  205 

go  forth  at  night  and  study,  so  far  as  he  should 
be  able,  the  operations  in  the  Works  of  Roland 
Clewe.  Having  safely  reached  his  retreat,  he 
lost  no  time  in  sallying  forth  to  spy  out  what  was 
going  on  at  Sardis. 

He  was  cunning  and  wary,  and  a  man  of  in 
finite  resource.  It  was  not  long  before  he  found 
out  that  the  polar  discovery  had  not  been  an 
nounced,  but  he  also  discovered  from  listening 
to  the  conversations  of  some  of  the  workmen  in 
the  village,  which  he  frequently  visited  in  a  guise 
very  unlike  his  ordinary  appearance,  that  some 
thing  extraordinary  had  taken  place  in  the  Sar 
dis  Works,  of  which  he  had  never  heard.  A  great 
shaft  had  been  sunk,  the  people  said,  by  accident; 
Mr.  Clewe  had  gone  down  it  in  a  car,  and  it  had 
taken  him  nearly  three  hours  to  get  to  the  bottom. 
Nobody  yet  knew  what  he  had  discovered,  but  it 
was  supposed  to  be  something  very  wonderful. 

The  night  after  Rovinski  heard  this  surprising 
news  he  was  in  the  building  which  had  contained 
the  automatic  shell.  As  active  as  a  cat,  he  had 
entered  by  an  upper  window. 

Rovinski  spent  the  night  in  that  building.  He 
had  with  him  a  dark  lantern,  and  he  made  the' 
most  thorough  examination  of  the  machinery  at 
the  mouth  of  the  shaft.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
mechanical  ability  and  an  expert  in  applied  elec 
tricity.  He  understood  that  machinery,  with  all 
its  complicated  arrangements  and  appliances,  as 
well  as  if  he  had  built  it  himself.  In  fact,  while 
examining  it,  he  thought  of  some  very  valuable 
improvements  which  might  have  been  made  in 
it.  He  knew  that  it  was  an  apparatus  for  lower- 


206  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

ing  the  car  to  a  great  depth,  and,  climbing  into  the 
car,  he  examined  everything  it  contained.  Com 
ing  down,  he  noticed  the  grating,  and  he  knew 
what  it  was  for.  He  looked  over  the  engines 
and  calculated  the  strength  of  the  chains  on  the 
windlasses.  He  took  an  impression  of  the  lock 
of  the  trap-door,  and  when  he  went  away  in  the 
very  early  hours  of  the  morning  he  understood 
the  apparatus  which  was  intended  to  lower  the 
car  as  well  as  any  person  who  had  managed  it. 
He  knew  nothing  about  the  shaft  under  the  great 
door,  but  this  he  intended  to  investigate  as  thor 
oughly  as  he  had  investigated  the  machinery. 

The  next  night  he  entered  the  building  very 
soon  after  Cunningham  had  gone  his  rounds,  and 
he  immediately  set  to  work  to  prepare  for  his 
descent  into  the  shaft.  He  disconnected  one  of 
the  engines,  for  he  sneeringly  said  to  himself 
that  the  other  one  was  more  than  sufficient  to 
lower  and  raise  the  car.  He  charged  and  ar 
ranged  all  the  batteries  and  put  in  perfect  work 
ing  order  the  mechanism  by  which  Clewe  had 
established  a  connection  between  the  car  and  the 
engines,  using  one  of  the  chains  as  a  conductor,  so 
that  he  could  himself  check  or  start  the  engines 
if  an  emergency  should  render  it  necessary. 

Then  Rovinski,  bounding  around  like  a  wild 
animal  in  a  cage,  took  out  a  key  he  had  brought 
with  him,  opened  the  trap  -  door,  lifted  it  back, 
and  gazed  down.  He  could  see  a  beautifully  cut 
well,  but  that  was  all.  But  no  matter  how  deep 
it  was,  he  intended  to  go  down  to  the  bottom 
of  it. 

He  started  the  engine  and  lowered  the  car  to 


ROVINSKI    COMES   TO   THE    SURFACE  207 

the  ground.  Then  he  looked  up  at  a  grating 
which  hung  above  it  and  determined  to  make 
use  of  this  protection.  He  could  not  lower  it  in 
the  ordinary  way  after  he  had  entered  the  car, 
but  in  fifteen  minutes  he  had  arranged  a  pulley 
and  rope  by  which,  after  the  car  had  gone  below 
the  surface,  he  could  lower  the  grating  to  its 
place.  He  got  in,  started  down  into  the  dark 
hole,  stopped  the  engine,  lowerr  d  the  grating, 
went  down  a  little  farther,  and  turned  on  the 
electric  lights. 

The  descent  of  Rovinski  was  a  succession  of 
the  wildest  sensations  of  amazed  delight.  Stra 
tum  after  stratum  passed  before  his  astonished 
eyes,  and,  when  he  had  gone  down  low  enough, 
he  allowed  himself  the  most  extravagant  expres 
sions  of  ecstasy.  His  progress  was  not  so  regular 
and  steady  as  that  of  Roland  Clewe  had  been. 
He  found  that  he  had  perfect  control  of  the  en 
gine  and  car,  and  sometimes  he  went  down  rapid 
ly,  sometimes  slowly,  and  frequently  he  stopped. 
As  he  continued  to  descend,  his  amazement  at 
the  wonderful  depth  of  the  shaft  became  greater 
and  greater  and  his_  mind  was  totally  unable  to 
appreciate  the  situation.  Still  he  was  not  fright 
ened,  and  went  on  down. 

At  last  Rovinski  emerged  into  the  cave  of 
light.  There  he  stopped,  the  car  hanging  some 
twenty  or  thirty  feet  above  the  bottom.  He 
looked  out,  he  saw  the  shell,  he  saw  the  vast  ex 
panse  of  lighted  nothingness,  he  tried  to  imagine 
what  it  was  that  that  mass  of  iron  rested  upon. 
If  he  had  not  seen  it,  he  would  have  thought  he 
had  come  out  into  the  upper  air  of  some  bottom- 


208  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

less  cavern.  But  a  great  iron  machine  nearly 
twenty  feet  long  could  not  rest  upon  air !  He 
thought  he  might  be  dreaming ;  he  sat  up  and 
shut  his  eyes ;  in  a  few  minutes  he  would  open 
them  and  see  if  he  still  saw  the  same  incompre 
hensible  things. 

The  downward  passage  of  Rovinski  had  occu 
pied  a  great  deil  more  time  than  he  had  calcu 
lated  for.  He  \  id  stopped  so  much,  and  had  been 
so  careful  to  ex;  mine  the  walls  of  the  shaft,  that 
morning  had  n;,w  arrived  in  the  upper  world,  and 
it  was  at  this  moment,  as  he  sat  with  his  eyes 
closed,  that  William  Cunningham  looked  down 
into  the  mouth  of  the  shaft. 

Cunningham  was  an  observing  man,  and  that 
morning  he  had  picked  up  a  pin  and  stuck  it  in 
the  lapel  of  his  rough  coat,  but  he  had  done  this 
hastily  and  carelessly.  The  pin  was  of  a  recently 
invented  kind,  being  of  a  light,  elastic  metal,  with 
its  head  of  steel.  As  Cunningham  leaned  for 
ward  the  pin  slipped  out  of  his  coat ;  it  fell 
through  one  of  the  openings  in  the  grating,  and 
descended  the  shaft  head  downward. 

For  the  first  quarter  of  a  mile  the  pin  went 
swiftly  in  an  absolutely  perpendicular  line,  nearly 
at  the  middle  of  the  shaft.  For  the  next  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  it  went  down  like  a  rifle-ball. 
For  the  next  five  miles  it  sped  on  as  if  it  had 
been  a  planet  revolving  in  space.  Then,  for  eight 
miles,  this  pin,  falling  perpendicularly  through  a 
greater  distance  than  any  object  on  this  earth 
had  ever  fallen  perpendicularly,  went  downward 
with  a  velocity  like  that  of  light.  Its  head  struck 
the  top  of  the  car,  which  was  hanging  motionless 


ROVINSKI    COMES   TO    THE    SURFACE  2OQ 

in  the  cave  of  light ;  it  did  not  glance  off,  for 
its  momentum  was  so  great  that  it  would  glance 
from  nothing.    It  passed  through  that  steel  roof  ;  \  j 
it  passed  through  Rovinski's  iiead,  through  his  !' 
heart,  down  through  the  car,  and  into  the  great 
shell  which  lay  below. 

When  Mr.  Bryce  and  several  workmen  came 
running  back  with  William  Cunningham,  they 
were  as  much  surprised  as  he  had  been,  and  could 
form  no  theory  to  account  for  the  disappearance 
of  the  car.  It  could  not  have  slipped  down  acci 
dentally  and  descended  by  its  own  weight,  for  the 
trap-door  was  open  and  the  grating  was  in  place. 
They  sent  in  great  haste  for  Mr.  Clewe,  and 
when  he  arrived  he  wasted  no  time  in  conject 
ures,  but  instantly  ordered  that  the  engine  which 
was  attached  to  the  car  should  be  started  and  its 
chain  wound  up. 

So  great  was  the  anxiety  to  get  the  car  to  the 
surface  of  the  earth  that  the  engine  which  raised 
it  was  run  at  as  high  a  speed  as  was  deemed  safe, 
and  in  a  little  more  than  an  hour  the  car  came 
out  of  the  mouth  of  the  shaft,  and  in  it  sat  Ivan 
Rovinski,  motionless  and  dead. 

No  one  who  knew  Rovinski  wondered  that  he 
had  had  the  courage  to  make  the  descent  of  the 
shaft,  and  those  who  were  acquainted  with  his 
great  mechanical  ability  were  not  surprised  that 
he  had  been  able  to  manage,  by  himself,  the  com 
plicated  machinery  which  would  ordinarily  re 
quire  the  service  of  several  men  ;  but  every  one 
who  saw  him  in  the  car,  or  after  he  had  been 
taken  out  of  it,  was  amazed  that  he  should  be 
dead.  There  was  no  sign  of  accident,  no  percep- 


210  THE    GREAT   STONE    OF    SARDIS 

tible  wound,  no  appearance,  in  fact,  of  any  cause 
why  he  should  be  a  tranquil  corpse  and  not  an 
alert  and  agile  devil.  Even  when  a  post-mortem 
examination  was  made,  the  doctors  were  puzzled. 
A  threadlike  solution  of  continuity  was  discov 
ered  in  certain  parts  of  his  body,  but  it  was  lost 
in  others,  and  the  coroner's  verdict  was  that  he 
came  to  his  death  from  unknown  causes  while  de 
scending  a  shaft.  The  general  opinion  was  that  in 
some  way  or  other  he  had  been  frightened  to  death. 

This  accident,  much  to  Roland  Clewe's  cha 
grin,  discovered  to  the  public  the  existence  of  the 
great  shaft.  Whether  or  not  he  would  announce 
its  existence  himself,  or  whether  he  would  close 
it  up,  had  not  been  determined  by  Clewe ;  but 
when  he  and  Margaret  had  talked  over  the  mat 
ter  soon  after  the  terrible  incident,  hisjrjjnd,  was 
made  up  beyond  all  possibility  of  change,  and,  by 
means  of  great  bombs,  the  shaft  was  shattered 
and  choked  up  for  a  depth  of  half  a  mile  from  its 
mouth.  When  this  work  was  accomplished,  noth 
ing  remained  but  a  shallow  well,  and,  when  this 
had  been  filled  up  with  solid  masonry,  the  place 
where  the  shaft  had  been  was  as  substantial  as  any 
solid  ground. 

Now  the  great  discovery  was  probably  shut  out 
forever  from  the  world,  but  Clewe  was  well  sat 
isfied.  He  would  never  make  another  shaft,  and 
it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  men  would  plan 
and  successfully  construct  one  which  would  reach 
down  to  the  transparent  nucleus  of  the  earth. 
The  terrible  fate,  whatever  it  was,  which  had 
overtaken  Rovinski,  should  not,  if  Clewe  could 
help  it,  overtake  any  other  human  being. 


ROVINSKI   COMES   TO   THE    SURFACE  211 

"  But  my  great  discovery,"  said  he  to  Marga 
ret,  "that  remains  as  wonderful  as  the  sun,  and 
as  safe  to  look  upon  ;  for  with  my  Artesian  ray  I 
can  bore  down  to  the  solid  centre  of  the  earth, 
and  into  it,  and  any  man  can  study  it  with  no  more 
danger  than  if  he  sat  in  his  arm-chair  at  home  ; 
and  if  they  doubt  what  I  say  about  the  material  of 
which  that  solid  centre  is  composed,  we  can  show 
them  the  fragments  or  it  which  I  brought  up 
with  me." 


CHAPTER   XXV 
LAURELS 

NOTHING  but  a  perusal  of  the  newspapers,  mag 
azines,  and  scientific  journals  of  the  day  could 
give  any  idea  of  the  enthusiastic  interest  which 
was  shown  all  over  the  civilized  world  in  Roland 
Clewe's  account  of  the  discovery  of  the  north 
pole.  His  paper  on  the  subject,  which  was  the 
first  intimation  the  public  had  of  the  great  news, 
was  telegraphed  to  every  part  of  the  world  and 
translated  into  nearly  every  written  language. 
Sardis  became  a  Mecca  for  explorers  and  scientific 
people  at  home  and  abroad,  and  honors  of  every 
kind  were  showered  by  geographical  and  other 
learned  societies  upon  Clewe  and  the  brave  com 
pany  who  had  voyaged  under  the  ice. 

Each  member  of  the  party  who  had  sailed  on 
the  Dipsey  became  a  hero  and  spent  most  of 
those  days  in  according  receptions  to  reporters, 
scholars,  travellers,  sportsmen,  and  as  many  of 
the  general  public  as  could  be  accommodated. 

Sarah  Block  received  her  numerous  visitors  in 
the  parlor  of  the  house  which  had  been  occupied 
by  Mr.  Clewe  (and  which  he  had  vacated  in  her 
favor  the  moment  he  had  heard  an  intimation 
that  she  would  like  to  have  it),  in  a  beautiful 
gown  made  of  the  silky  fibre  from  the  pods  of  the 


LAURELS  213 

American  milk-weed,  then  generally  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  the  finest  fabrics. 

Sarah  fully  appreciated  her  position  as  the 
woman  who  had  visited  the  pole,  a  position  not 
only  unique  at  the  time,  but  which  she  believed 
would  always  remain  so.  In  every  way  she  en 
deavored  to  make  her  appearance  suitable  to  her 
new  position.  She  wore  the  best  clothes  that  her 
money  could  buy,  and  furnished  her  new  house 
very  handsomely.  She  discarded  her  old  silver 
andirons  and  fender,  which  required  continual 
cleaning,  and  which  would  not  have  been  toler 
ated  by  her  except  that  they  were  made  of  a  metal 
which  was  now  so  cheap  as  to  be  used  for  house 
hold  utensils,  and  she  put  in  their  place  a  beau 
tiful  set  of  polished  brass,  such  as  people  used  in 
her  mother's  time.  Whenever  Sarah  found  any 
one  whom  she  considered  worthy  to  listen,  she 
gave  a  very  full  account  of  her  adventures,  never 
omitting  the  loss  of  her  warm  and  comfortable 
shoes,  which  misfortune,  together  with  the  per 
formances  of  Rovinski,  and  all  the  dangers  conse 
quent,  and  the  acquaintance  of  the  tame  and 
lonely  whale,  she  attributed  to  the  fact  that  there 
were  thirteen  people  on  board. 

Sammy's  accounts  were  in  a  more  cheerful  key, 
and  his  principles  were  not  affected  by  his  suc 
cess.  He  never  had  believed  that  there  was  any 
good  in  finding  the  pole,  and  he  did  not  believe 
it  now.  When  they  got  there,  it  was  just  like  any 
other  part  of  the  ocean,  and  it  required  a  great 
deal  of  arithmetic  and  navigation  to  find  out 
where  it  was,  even  when  they  were  looking  at  it ; 
besides,  as  he  had  found  out  to  his  disgust,  even 


214  THE   GREAT   STONE   OF   SARDIS 

when  they  had  discovered  it,  it  was  not  the  real 
pole  to  which  the  needle  of  the  compass  points. 

Moreover,  if  there  had  been  any  distinctive 
mark  about  it,  except  the  buoy  which  they  had 
anchored  there,  and  even  if  it  really  were  the  pole 
to  which  needles  should  point,  there  was  no  par 
ticular  good  in  finding  it,  unless  other  people 
could  get  there.  But  in  regard  to  any  other  ex 
pedition  reaching  the  open  polar  sea  under  the 
ice,  Sammy  had  grave  doubts.  If  a  whale  could 
not  get  out  of  that  sea  there  was  every  reason 
why  nobody  else  should  try  to  get  into  it ;  the 
Dipsefs  entrance  was  the  barest  scratch,  and  he 
would  not  try  it  again  if  the  north  pole  were 
marked  out  by  a  solid  mountain  of  gold. 

Roland  Clewe  refused  in  all  personal  interviews 
to  receive  the  laudations  offered  him  as  the  dis 
coverer  of  the  pole.  It  was  true  that  the  expedi 
tion  had  been  planned  by  him,  and  all  the  ar 
rangements  and  mechanisms  which  had  insured 
its  success  were  of  his  invention,  but  he  steadily 
insisted  that  Mr.  Gibbs  and  Sammy,  as  represent 
atives  of  the  party,  should  be  awarded  the  glory 
of  the  great  discovery. 

The  remarkable  success  of  this  most  remarka- 
ble  expedition  aroused  a  widespread j^Dint^pf  arc 
tic  exploration.  Not  only  were  voyages  under 
the  ice  discussed  and  planned,  but  there  was  a 
strong  feeling  in  favor  of  overland  travel  by 
means  of  the  electric-motor  sledges ;  and  in  Eng 
land  and  Norway  expeditions  were  organized  for 
the  purpose  of  reaching  the  polar  sea  in  this  way. 
It  was  noticed  in  most  that  was  written  and  said 
upon  this  subject  that  one  of  the  strongest  in- 


LAURELS  215 

ducements  for  arctic  expeditions  was  the  fact 
that  there  would  be  found  on  the  shores  of  the 
polar  sea  a  telegraph  station,  by  means  of  which 
instantaneous  news  of  success  could  be  trans 
mitted. 

The  interest  of  sportsmen,  especially  of  the 
hunters  of  big  game,  was  greatly  excited  by  the 
statement  that  there  was  a  whale  in  the  polar  sea. 
These  great  creatures  being  extinct  everywhere 
else,  it  would  be  a  unique  and  crowning  glory  to 
capture  this  last  survivor  of  his  race ;  and  there 
were  many  museums  of  natural  history  which 
were  already  discussing  contracts  with  intending 
polar  whalers  for  the  purchase  of  the  skeleton  of 
the  last  whale. 

During  all  this  time  of  enthusiasm  and  excite 
ment,  Roland  Clewe  made  no  reference,  in  any 
public  way,  to  his  great  discovery,  which,  in  his 
opinion,  far  surpassed  in  importance  to  the  world 
all  possible  arctic  discoveries.  He  was  busily 
engaged  in  increasing  the  penetrating  distance 
of  his  Artesian  ray,  and  when  the  public  mind 
should  have  sufficiently  recovered  from  the  per 
turbation  into  which  it  had  been  thrown  by  the 
discovery  of  the  pole,  he  intended  to  lay  before  it 
the  results  of  his  researches  into  the  depths  of 
the  earth. 

At  last  the  time  arrived  when  he  was  ready 
for  the  announcement  of  the  great  achievement 
of  his  life.  The  machinery  for  the  production 
of  the  Artesian  ray  had  been  removed  to  the 
larger  building  which  had  contained  the  auto 
matic  shell,  and  was  set  up  very  near  the  place 
where  the  mouth  of  the  great  shaft  had  been. 


21 6  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

The  lenses  were  arranged  so  that  the  path  of 
the  great  ray  should  run  down  alongside  of  the 
shaft  and  but  a  few  feet  from  it.  The  screen  was 
set  up  as  it  had  been  in  the  other  building,  and 
everything  was  made  ready  for  the  operations  of 
the  photic  borer. 

About  a  dozen  of  the  most  distinguished  special 
ists  in  the  various  branches  of  science  concerned 
in  his  operations  had  been  invited  by  Clewe  to 
be  present  on  this  occasion,  and,  in  addition,  of 
course,  were  reporters  from  the  principal  news 
papers.  There  were  several  ladies  present,  one  of 
them  the  celebrated  Ida  Tippengray,  Professor 
of  Geology  at  Bryn-Mawr  College,  whose  recent 
work  upon  the  carboniferous  rocks  had  excited 
great  attention.  Margaret  Raleigh  and  Sarah 
Block  were  also  present,  and  Sammy,  with  Mr. 
Gibbs  and  all  the  Dipsey  people,  assembled  to  learn 
what  had  been  done  at  the  Works  during  their 
absence,  without  any  suspicion  that  there  was  a 
discovery  possible  which  could  throw  even  the 
smallest  shadow  upon  their  exploits. 

The  address  which  Roland  Clewe  now  delivered 
to  the  company  was  made  as  brief  and  as  much 
to  the  point  as  possible.  The  description  of  the 
Artesian  ray  was  listened  to  with  the  deepest  in 
terest  and  with  a  vast  amount  of  unexpressed  in 
credulity.  What  he  subsequently  said  regarding 
his  automatic  shell  and  its  accidental  descent 
through  fourteen  miles  of  the  earth's  crust,  ex 
cited  more  interest  and  more  incredulity,  not  en 
tirely  unexpressed.  Clewe  was  well  known  as 
a  man  of  science,  an  inventor,  an  electrician  of 
rare  ability,  and  a  person  of  serious  purpose  and 


LAURELS  217 

strict  probity,  but  it  was  possible  for  a  man  of 
great  attainments  and  of  the  highest  moral 
character  to  become  a  little  twisted  in  his  in 
tellect. 

When  at  last  the  speaker  told  of  his  descent 
into  the  shaft ;  of  his  passage  fourteen  miles 
into  the  interior  of  the  earth ;  of  his  discover 
ies,  on  which  he  based  his  theory  that  the  centre 
of  our  globe  is  one  vast  diamond,  there  was  a 
general  laugh  from  the  reporters'  quarter,  and 
the  men  of  science  began  to  move  uneasily  in 
their  seats  and  to  talk  to  each  other.  Professor 
Tippengray,  her  silver  hair  brushed  smoothly 
back  from  her  pale  countenance,  sat  looking  at 
the  speaker  through  her  gold  spectacles,  as  if  the 
rays  from  her  bright  eyes  would  penetrate  into 
the  v<ery  recesses  of  his  soul.  Not  an  atom  of 
doubt  was  in  her  mind ;  she  never  doubted,  she 
believed  or  she  disbelieved.  At  present  she  be 
lieved  ;  she  had  come  there  to  do  that,  and  she 
would  wait,  and  when  the  proper  time  had  come 
to  disbelieve  she  would  do  so. 

If  there  had  been  any  disposition  in  the  audi 
ence  to  considerately  leave  the  man  of  scattered 
intellect  to  the  care  of  his  friends,  it  disappeared 
when  Clewe  said  that  he  would  now  be  glad  to 
show  to  all  present  the  workings  of  the  Artesian 
ray.  Crazy  as  he  might  be,  they  wanted  to  wait 
and  see  what  he  had  done.  The  workmen  who 
had  charge  of  the  machinery  were  on  hand,  and 
in  a  few  moments  a  circle  of  light  was  glowing 
on  the  ground  within  the  screen.  Clewe  now 
announced  that  he  would  take  those  present,  one 
at  a  time,  inside  the  enclosure  and  show  them 


2l8  THE   GREAT   STONE    OP   SARDIS 

how  light  could  be  made  to  penetrate  miles  down 
ward  into  the  solid  earth  and  rock. 

Professor  Tippengray  was  the  first  one  invited 
to  step  within  the  screen.  Clewe  stood  at  the 
entrance  ready  to  explain  or  to  hand  her  the  neces 
sary  telescopes ;  and  as  the  portion  of  her  body 
which  remained  visible  was  between  him  and  the 
light,  there  was  nothing  to  disturb  his  nerves.. 

The  lenses  were  so  set  that  they  could  pene 
trate  almost  instantly  to  the  depth  which  had 
previously  been  reached,  but  Clewe  made  his  ray 
move  downward  somewhat  slowly  ;  he  did  not 
wish,  especially  to  the  first  observer,  to  show 
everything  at  once. 

As  she  beheld  at  her  feet  a  great  lighted  well, 
extending  downward  beyond  the  reach  of  her 
sharp  eyes,  Professor  Tippengray  stepped  back 
with  a  scream  which  caused  nearly  everybody  in 
the  audience  to  start  to  his  feet.  Clewe  expected 
this.  He  raised  his  hand  to  the  company,  asking 
them  to  keep  still ;  then  he  handed  Professor  Tip 
pengray  a  stick. 

"Take  this,"  he  said,  "and  strike  that  disk  of 
light ;  you  will  find  it  as  solid  ground  as  that  you 
stand  on."  She  did  so. 

"  It  is  solid  !"  she  gasped;  "  but  where  is  the  end 
of  the  stick?" 

He  turned  off  the  light ;  there  was  the  end  of 
the  stick,  and  there  was  the  little  patch  of  sandy 
gravel,  which  he  stepped  upon,  stamping  heav 
ily  as  he  did  so.  He  then  retired  outside  the 
screen.  Professor  Tippengray  turned  to  the  au 
dience. 

"  It  is  all  right,  gentlemen,"  she  said ;  "  there 


LAURELS  219 

is  nothing  to  be  afraid  of.  I  am  going  on  with 
the  investigation." 

Down,  down,  down  went  the  light,  and,  tele 
scope  in  hand,  she  stood  close  to  the  shining  edge 
of  the  apparent  shaft. 

"Presently,"  Clewe  said,  "you  will  see  the  end 
of  the  shaft  which  my  Artesian  ray  is  making ; 
then  you  will  perceive  a  vast  expanse  of  lighted 
nothingness ;  that  is  the  great  cleft  in  the  dia 
mond  which  I  described  to  you.  In  this,  ap 
parently  suspended  in  light,  you  will  notice  the 
broken  conical  end  of  an  enormous  iron  shell,  the 
shell  which  made  the  real  tunnel  down  which  I 
descended  in  the  car." 

At  this  she  turned  around  and  looked  at  him. 
Even  into  her  strong  mind  the  sharp  edge  of  dis 
trust  began  to  insert  itself. 

"  Look  !"  said  he. 

She  looked  through  her  telescope.  There  was 
the  cave  of  light ;  there  was  the  shattered  end  of 
the  shell. 

The  hands  which  held  the  telescope  began  to 
tremble.  Quickly  Clewe  drew  her  away. 

"Now,"  said  he,  "do  you  believe?" 

For  a  few  moments  she  could  not  speak,  and 
then  she  whispered,  "  I  believe  that  I  have  seen 
what  you  have  told  me  I  should  see." 

Now  succeeded  a  period  of  intense  excitement, 
such  as  was  perhaps  never  before  known  in  an 
assembly  of  scientific  people.  One  by  one,  each 
person  was  led  by  Clewe  inside  the  screen  and 
shown  the  magical  shaft  of  light.  Each  received 
the  revelation  according  to  his  nature.  Some 
were  dumfounded  and  knew  not  what  to  think, 


220  THE   GREAT    STONE    OP   SARDIS 

others  suspected  all  sorts  of  tricks,  especially  with 
the  telescopes,  but  a  well-known  optician,  who  by 
Clewe's  request  had  brought  a  telescope  of  his 
own,  quickly  disproved  all  suspicions  of  this  kind. 
Many  could  not  help  doubting  what  they  had 
seen,  but  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  formu 
late  their  doubts,  with  that  wonderful  shaft  of 
light  still  present  to  their  mental  visions. 

For  more  than  two  hours  Roland  Clewe  ex 
hibited  the  action  of  his  Artesian  ray.  Then  he 
called  the  company  to  order.  He  had  shown  them 
his  shaft  of  light,  and  now  he  would  give  them 
some  facts  in  regard  to  the  real  shaft  made  by 
the  automatic  shell. 

Every  man  who  had  been  concerned  in  Mr. 
Clewe's  descent  into  the  shaft,  and  those  who  had 
assisted  in  the  sounding  and  the  photographing, 
as  well  as  the  persons  who  had  been  present  when 
Rovinski  was  drawn  up  from  its  depths,  now 
came  forward  and  gave  his  testimony.  Clewe 
then  exhibited  the  photographs  he  had  taken 
with  his  suspended  camera,  and  to  the  geologists 
present  these  were  revelations  of  absorbing  in 
terest  ;  seeing  so  much  that  they  understood,  it 
was  difficult  to  doubt  what  they  saw  and  did  not 
understand. 

Now  that  what  Clewe  had  just  told  them  was 
substantiated  by  a  number  of  witnesses,  and 
now  that  they  had  heard  from  these  men  that  a 
plummet,  a  camera,  and  a  car  had  been  lowered 
fourteen  miles  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  they 
had  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  great  shaft 
had  existe'd  only  in  theJinj£ina_tion.,,G£  one  crazy 
man,  and  they  could  not  believe  that  all  these  as- 


LAURELS  221 

sistants  and  workmen  were  lunatics  or  liars.  Still 
they  doubted.  Clewe  could  see  that  in  their 
faces  as  they  intently  listened  to  him. 

"  My  friends,'  said  he,  "  I  have  set  before  you 
nearly  all  the  facts  connected  with  my  experience 
in  the  shaft,  but  one  important  fact  I  have  not 
yet  mentioned.  I  am  quite  sure  that  few,  if  any 
of  you,  believe  that  I  descended  into  the  cleft  of 
a  great  diamond  lying  beneath  what  we  call  the 
crust  of  the  earth.  I  will  now  state  that  before 
I  left  that  cavity  I  picked  up  some  fragments  of 
the  material  of  which  it  is  composed,  which  were 
splintered  off  when  my  shell  fell  into  it.  I  will 
show  you  one  of  them." 

A  man  brought  a  table  covered  with  a  blue  cloth, 
and  from  one  of  his  pockets  Clewe  drew  a  small 
bag.  Opening  this,  he  took  out  a  diamond  which 
he  had  brought  up  from  the  cave  of  light,  and 
placed  it  on  the  middle  of  the  table. 

"  This,"  he  said,  "  is  a  fragment  of  the  mass  of 
diamond  into  which  I  descended.  I  have  called 
it  '  The  Great  Stone  of  Sardis.'  " 

Nobody  spoke,  nobody  seemed  to  breathe.  The 
huge  diamond,  of  the  form  and  size  of  a  large 
lemon,  lay  glowing  upon  the  dark  cloth,  its  ir 
regular  facets — all  of  them  clean-cut  and  polished, 
the  results  of  fracture — absorbed  and  reflected 
the  light,  and  a  halo  of  subdued  radiance  sur 
rounded  the  great  gem  like  a  tender  mist. 

"  I  brought  away  a  number  of  fragments  of 
the  diamond,"  said  Clewe,  his  voice  sounding  as 
if  he  spoke  into  an  empty  hall,  "and  some  of 
them  have  been  tested  by  two  of  the  gentlemen 
present.  Here  are  the  stones  which  have  been 


222  THE    GREAT   STONE    OP    SARDIS 

tested."  And  he  laid  some  small  pieces  on  the 
cloth.  "They  are  of  the  same  material  as  the 
large  one.  I  brought  them  all  from  what  I  be 
lieve  to  be  the  great  central  core  of  the  earth." 

Everybody  pressed  forward,  they  surrounded 
the  table.  One  of  the  jewelers  reverently  took 
up  the  great  stone  ;  then  in  his  other  hand  he 
took  one  of  the  smaller  fragments,  which  he  in 
stantly  recognized  from  its  peculiar  shape.  He 
looked  from  one  to  the  other  ;  presently  he  said: 

"  They  are  the  same  substances.  This  is  a  dia 
mond."  And  he  laid  the  great  stone  back  upon 
the  cloth. 

"  Is  there  any  other  place  on  the  surface  of  this 
earth,  or  is  there  any  mine,"  inquired  a  shrill 
voice  from  the  company,  "where  one  could  get  a 
diamond  like  that  ?" 

"  There  is  no  such  place  known  to  mortal  man," 
replied  the  jeweler. 

"  Then,"  said  the  same  shrill  voice,  which  be 
longed  to  a  professor  from  Harvard,  "  I  think  it 
is  the  duty  of  every  one  present,  whose  mind  is 
capable  of  it,  to  believe  that  the  centre  of  this 
earth,  or  a  part  of  that  centre,  is  a  vast  diamond  ; 
at  the  same  time  I  would  say  that  my  mind  is 
not  capable  of  such  a  belief." 

The  public  excitement  produced  by  the  an 
nouncement  of  the  discovery  of  the  pole  was  a 
trifle  compared  to  that  resulting  from  the  news 
of  the  proceedings  of  that  day.  Clewe's  address, 
with  full  accounts  by  the  reporters,  was  printed 
everywhere,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  learned 
world  had  given  itself  up  to  the  discussion. 


LAURELS  223 

From  this  controversy  Roland  Clewe  kept  him 
self  aloof.  He  had  done  all  that  he  wanted  to  do, 
he  had  shown  all  that  he  cared  to  show  ;  now  he 
would  let  other  people  investigate  his  facts  and 
his  reasonings  and  argue  about  them  ;  he  would 
retire — he  had  done  enough. 

Professor  Tippengray  was  one  of  the  most  en 
thusiastic  defenders  of  Clewe's  theories,  and  wrote 
a  great  deal  on  the  subject. 

"  Granted,"  she  said,  in  one  of  her  articles, 
"  that  the  carboniferous  minerals,  of  which  the 
diamond  is  one,  are  derived  from  vegetable  mat 
ter,  and  that  wood  and  plants  must  have  existed 
before  the  diamond,  where,  may  I  ask,  did  the  pre- 
diamond  forests  derive  their  carbon  ?  In  what 
form  did  it  exist  before  they  came  into  being  ?" 

In  another  essay  she  said  : 

"  Half  a  century  ago  it  was  discovered  that  a 
man  could  talk  through  a  thousand  miles  of  wire, 
and  yet  now  we  doubt  that  a  man  can  descend 
through  fourteen  miles  of  rock." 

As  to  the  Artesian  ray  itself,  there  could  be 
no  doubt  whatever,  for  when  Clewe,  in  one  of  his 
experiments,  directed  it  horizontally  through  a 
small  mountain  and  objects  could  be  plainly  dis 
cerned  upon  the  other  side,  discussions  in  regard 
to  the  genuineness  of  the  action. of  the  photic 
borer  were  useless. 

In  medicine,  as  well  as  surgery,  the  value  of  the 
Artesian  ray  was  speedily  admitted  by  the  civil 
ized  world.  To  eliminate  everything  between 
the  eye  of  the  surgeon  and  the  affected  portion 
of  a  human  organism  was  like  the  rising  of  the 
sun  upon  a  hitherto  benighted  region. 


224  THE    GREAT    STONE    OP   SARDIS 

In  the  winter,  Margaret  Raleigh  and  Roland 
Clewe  were  married.  They  travelled  ;  they  lived 
and  loved  in  pleasant  places  ;  and  they  returned 
the  next  year  rich  in  new  ideas  and  old  art  tro 
phies.  They  bought  a  fine  estate,  and  furnished 
it  and  improved  it  as  an  artist  paints  a  picture, 
without  a  thought  of  the  cost  of  the  colors  he 
puts  upon  it.  They  were  rich  enough  to  have 
everything  they  cared  to  wish  for.  Undue  toil 
and  troubled  thought  had  been  the  companions 
of  Roland  Clewe  for  many  a  year,  and  their  com 
pany  had  been  imposed  upon  him  by  his  poverty; 
now  he  would  not,  nor  would  his  wife,  allow  that 
companionship  to  be  imposed  upon  him  by  his 
riches. 

The  Great  Stone  of  Sardis  was  sold  to  a  syndi 
cate  of  kings,  each  member  of  which  was  un 
willing  that  this  dominant  gem  of  the  world 
should  belong  exclusively  to  any  royal  family 
other  than  his  own.  When  a  coronation  should 
occur,  each  member  of  the  syndicate  had  a  right 
to  the  use  of  the  jewel ;  at  other  times  it  re 
mained  in  the  custody  of  one  of  the  great  bank 
ers  of  the  world,  who  at  stated  periods  allowed 
the  inhabitants  of  said  planet  to  gaze  upon  its 
transcendent  brilliancy. 

But  the  Works  at  Sardis  were  not  given  up. 
Margaret  was  not  jealous  of  her  rival,  Science, 
and  if  Roland  had  ceased  to  be  an  inventor,  a 
discoverer,  a  philosopher,  simply  because  he  had 
become  a  rich  and  happy  husband,  he  would  have 
ceased  to  be  the  Roland  she  had  loved  so  long. 

The  discovery  of  the  north  pole  had  given  him 
fame  and  honor  ;  for,  notwithstanding  the  fact 


LAURELS  225 

that  he  had  never  been  there,  he  was  always  con 
sidered  as  the  man  who  had  given  to  the  world 
its  only  knowledge  of  its  most  northern  point. 

But  in  his  heart  Roland  Clewe  placed  little 
value  liponTnTs  discovery.  Before  Mr.  Gibbs 
had  announced  the  exact  location  of  the  north 
pole,  all  the  students  of  geography  had  known 
where  it  was ;  before  the  eyes  of  the  party  on 
the  Dipsey  had  rested  upon  the  spot  pointed  out 
by  Mr.  Gibbs,  it  was  well  understood  that  the 
north  pole  was  either  an  invisible  point  on  the 
surface  of  ice  or  an  invisible  point  on  the  surface 
of  water.  If  no  possible  good  could  result  from 
a  journey  such  as  the  Dipsey  had  made,  no  subse 
quent  good  of  a  similar  kind  could  ever  be  ex 
pected  ;  for  the  next  submarine  vessel  which  at 
tempted  a  northern  journey  under  the  ice  was  as 
likely  to  remain  under  the  ice  as  it  was  to  emerge 
into  the  open  air ;  and  if  any  one  reached  the 
open  sea  upon  motor  sledges,  it  would  be  neces 
sary  for  them  to  carry  boats  with  them  if  they 
desired  so  much  as  a  sight  of  that  weather-vane 
which,  no  matter  how  the  wind  blew,  always 
pointed  to  the  south. 

It  was  the  Artesian  ray  which  Clewe  considered 
the  great  achievement  of  his  life,  and  to  this  he 
intended  to  devote  the  remainder  of  his  working 
days.  It  was  his  object  to  penetrate  deeper  and 
deeper  with  this  ray  into  the  interior  of  the 
earth.  He  could  always  provide  himself  with 
telescopes  which  would  show  him  the  limit  reach 
ed  by  his  photic  borer,  and  so  long  as  that  limit 
was  a  transparent  disk,  illuminated  by  his  great 
ray,  so  long  he  would  believe  in  the  existence  of 


226  THE    GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

the  diamond  centre  of  the  earth.  But  when  the 
penetrating  light  reached  something  different, 
then  would  come  the  time  for  a  change  in  his 
theories. 

Discussion  and  controversy  in  regard  to  the 
discoveries  of  the  Artesian  ray  continued,  often 
with  great  earnestness  and  heat,  in  learned  cir 
cles,  and  there  were  frequent  demands  upon 
Clewe  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  his  descent  of 
fourteen  miles  below  the  surface  of  the  earth  by 
an  actual  exhibition  of  the  shaft  he  had  made  or 
by  the  construction  of  another. 

But  to  such  requests  Clewe  turned  a  deaf  ear. 
It  would  be  impossible  for  him  to  open  his  old 
shaft.  If  in  any  way  he  could  remove  the  rocks 
and  soil  which  now  blocked  up  its  upper  portion 
for  a  distance  of  half  a  mile,  it  would  be  impossi 
ble  to  reconstruct  any  portion  which  had  been 
obstructed.  The  smooth  and  polished  walls  of 
the  shaft,  which  gave  Clewe  such  assurance  of 
safety  from  falling  fragments,  would  not  exist  if 
the  tunnel  were  opened. 

As  to  a  new  shaft — that  would  require  a  new 
automatic  shell,  and  this  Clewe  was  not  willing 
to  construct.  In  fact,  rather  than  make  a  new 
opening  to  the  cave  of  light,  he  would  prefer  that 
people  should  doubt  that  any  such  cave  existed. 
The  more  he  thought  of  his  own  descent  into 
that  great  cleft,  the  more  he  thought  of  the  hor 
rible  danger  of  sliding  down  some  invisible  de 
clivity  to  awful,  unknown  regions  ;  the  more  he 
thought  of  the  mysterious  death  of  Rovinski,  the 
more  firmly  did  he  determine  that  not  by  his 
agency  should  a  human  being  descend  again  to 


LAURELS  227 

those  mysterious  depths.  He  would  do  all  that 
he  could  to  enable  men  to  see  into  the  interior  of 
this  earth,  but  he  would  do  nothing  to  help  any 
man  to  get  there. 

The  controversies  in  regard  to  their  discoveries 
and  theory  disturbed  Roland  and  Margaret  not 
a  whit  ;  they  worked  steadily,  with  energy  and 
zeal,  and,  above  all,  they  worked  without  that 
dreadful  cloud  which  so  frequently  overhangs  the 
laborer  in  new  fields  —  the  fear  that  the  means  of 
labor  will  disappear  before  the  object  of  the  work 
shall  come  in  view. 

One  morning  in  the  early  summer,  Roland 
rushed  into  the  room  where  Margaret  sat. 

"  I  have  made  a  discovery  !"  he  exclaimed. 
"  Come  quickly,  I  want  to  show  it  to  you  !" 

Thejieart^of  the  young  wife  sank.  During  all 
these  happy  days  the  only  shadow  that  ever  flit 
ted  across  her  sky  was  the  thought^  that  some 
novel  temptation  of  science  might  turn  her  hus 
band  from  the  great  work  to  which  he  had  dedi 
cated  himself.  Much  that  he  had  purposed  to  do, 
he  had,  at  her  earnest  solicitation,  set  aside  in 
favor  of  what  she  considered  the  greatest  task  to 
which  a  human  being  could  give  his  time,  his 
labor,  and  his  thought.  It  had  been  long  since 
she  had  heard  her  husband  speak  of  a  new  dis 
covery,  and  the 


"Come,"  he  said,  "quickly  !"  And,  taking  her 
by  the  hand,  he  led  her  out  upon  the  lawn. 

Over  the  soft  green  turf,  under  the  beautiful 
trees,  by  the  bright  flowers  of  the  parterres  and 
through  the  natural  beauty  of  the  charming  park, 


228  THE    GREAT    STONE    OF   SARDIS 

he  led  her  ;  but  not  a  word  did  she  say  of  the  soft 
colors  and  the  soft  air.  Not  a  flower  did  she  look 
at.  It  seemed  to  her  as  if  she  trod  a  bleak  and 
stony  road.  She  dreaded  what  she  might  hear, 
what  she  might  see. 

He  led  her  hastily  through  a  gate  in  the  garden 
wall ;  they  passed  through  the  garden,  and,  whis 
pering  to  her  to  step  lightly,  they  entered  a  quiet, 
shady  spot  beyond  the  house  grounds. 

"  This  way,"  he  whispered.  "  Stoop  down.  Do 
you  see  that  shining  thing  with  bright -red 
patches  of  color  ?  It  is  an  old  tomato-can  ;  a 
robin  has  built  her  nest  in  it ;  there  are  three 
dear  little  birds  inside ;  the  mother-bird  is  away, 
and  I  wanted  you  to  come  before  she  returned. 
Isn't  it  lucky  that  I  should  have  found  that? 
And  here,  in  our  own  grounds  ?  I  don't  believe 
there  was  ever  another  robin  who  made  her  nest 
in  a  tomato-can  !" 

Doubtless  the  two  birds  who  had  made  that 
nest  sincerely  loved  each  other ;  and  there  were 
at  that  moment  a  great  many  other  birds,  and  a 
great  many  men  and  women,  in  the  same  plight, 
but  never  anywhere  did  any  human  being  possess 
a  soul_so  happy_as  that  of  Margaret  at  that  mo 
ment. 

"  Roland,"  she  said,  "  when  I  first  knew  you,  you 
would  not  have  noticed  such  a  little  thing  as  that." 

"  I  couldn't  afford  it,"  he  said. 

"  It  is  the  sweetest  charm  of  all  your  triumphs  !" 
said  she. 

"  What  is  ?"  he  asked. 

"  That  you  feel  able  to  afford  it  now,"  answered 
Margaret. 


LAURELS  229 

Samuel  Block  and  his  wife  Sarah  found  that 
life  grew  pleasanter  as  they  grew  older.  Fortu 
nate  winds  had  blown  down  to  them  from  the  dis 
tant  north  ;  the  substantial  rewards  of  the  enter 
prise  were  eminently  satisfactory,  and  the  honors 
which  came  to  them  were  not  at  all  unwelcome 
even  to  the  somewhat  cynical  Samuel. 

Sitting  one  evening  with  his  wife  before  a 
cheering  fire — for  both  of  them  were  wedded  to 
the  old-fashioned  ways  of  keeping  warm — Sammy 
laid  down  the  daily  paper  with  a  smile. 

"  There's  an  account  here,"  he  said,  "  of  a  lot  o' 
fools  who  are  goin'  to  fit  out  a  submarine-ship  to 
try  to  go  under  the  ice  to  the  pole,  as  we  did. 
They  may  get  there,  and  they  may  get  back ; 
they  may  get  there,  and  they  may  never  get  back  ; 
and  they  may  never  get  there,  and  never  get 
back ;  but  whichever  of  the  three  it  happens  to 
be,  it  '11  be  of  no  more  good  than  if  they  measured 
a  mile  to  see  how  many  inches  there  was  in  it." 

"  Sammy,"  exclaimed  Sarah,  "  I  do  think  you 
are  old  enough  to  stop  taikin'  such  nonsense  as 
that.  To  be  sure,  there  was  a  good  many  things 
that  I  objected  to  in  that  voyage  to  the  pole.  In 
the  first  place,  there  was  thirteen  people  on  board, 
which  was  the  greatest  mistake  ever  committed 
by  a  human  explorin'  party ;  and  then,  agin,  there 
was  no  provision  for  keepin'  whales  from  bump- 
in'  the  ship,  and  if  you  knew  the  number  of  hours 
that  I  laid  awake  on  that  Dipsey  thinkin'  what 
would  happen  if  the  frolicsome  whale  determined 
not  to  be  left  alone,  and  should  follow  us  into 
narrow  quarters,  you  would  understand  my  feel- 
in's  on  that  subject ;  but  as  to  sayin'  there  wasn't 


230  THE   GREAT   STONE   OP   SARDIS 

no  good  in  the  expedition — I  think  that's  down 
right  wickedness.  Look  at  that  fender ;  look 
at  them  andirons,  them  beautiful  brass  candle 
sticks,  and  that  shovel  and  tongs,  with  handles 
shinin'  like  gold !  If  it  hadn't  been  that  we  dis 
covered  the  pole,  and  so  got  able  to  afford  good 
furniture,  all  those  handsome  things  would  have 
been  made  of  common  silver,  just  as  if  they  was 
pots  and  kittles,  or  garden-spades  !" 


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